16'2 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The Forest of Peszer is a long, narrow strip of wood, com- 

 posed mostly of acacia and poplar trees, though in one part oak 

 and birch largely predominate ; the soil is very sandy. At the 

 south end of the wood are numerous sandhills, between which 

 are open glades ; the vegetation is exceedingly luxuriant and 

 varied. No sooner had we entered the wood than we were 

 amongst butterflies in great numbers ; in one or two places 

 where we went in the afternoon the profusion of insects was so 

 great that it made one's eyes ache to watch for long the continual 

 movement of the thousands of fluttering wings hovering over 

 the herbage. I think perhaps A. sylvanus was the most plentiful 

 butterfly on the wing ; it was in swarms everywhere. The only 

 other member of the family that I saw was H. carthami. In 

 point of numbers, though, A. sylvanus was run very close by 

 B. hecate, and this rare and local species was excessively abundant 

 — all in perfect condition, and the newly emerged females very 

 fine, with a beautiful purplish gloss on their wings. M. trivia was 

 another very common species ; some worn, but most in perfect 

 order. Fine dark M. athalia were also abundant, though rather 

 more local. A single specimen of D. pandora was secured, the 

 only one seen, but A. niobe var. er'is and I. lathonia were both 

 common. On the blossoms of the privet were many Theclids. 

 Strymon acacia, S. ilicis, and S^pruni ; the first two species were 

 very common, and both quite fresh, S. ilicis being of large size 

 and very black; S. pruni was frequent also, but generally much 

 torn. In the open glades beautifully fresh C. alciphron males 

 were greatly in evidence ; this species has a very quick flight, and 

 is rather difficult to follow with the eye. The females seemed to 

 be quite rare. 



Melanargia galathea var. procida was excessively abundant in 

 certain places — fine dark specimens, in the pink of condition — 

 while A. cratcegi, E. ianira, and P. icarus were everywhere. On 

 various plants were large numbers of full-fed larvae of Arctia 

 caia, and a beautiful iridescent Longicorn (Lytta versicatoria) 

 was very abundant on ash trees. We were given an excellent 

 lunch by the chief forester's wife in their delightful house in 

 the middle of the forest, and though perhaps one rather grudged 

 the time necessary for its proper consumption, it would never 

 have done, by hurrying through the meal, to have offended our 

 host the forester, for we relied on him to take us to the spot, in 

 a distant portion of the forest, where we hoped to find the much 

 wanted Melanargia iapygia var. suvarovius. Our spirits rose 

 high, cheered partly by his delicious home-made wine and partly 

 by the assurance that " there was no hurry ; we should find 

 plenty suvarovius,'' which assurance only made us want to 

 hurry the more; and sure enough, when we did eventually, 

 about two o'clock, reach the locality for this very local species, in 

 two places, we found it very abundant and in perfect condition. 



