36 



ever, they monopolised the first-class compartment of our composite 

 carriage in which to disrobe and dry their outer garments. I altered 

 my itinerary, and did not stop at Linguaglossa, where the filberts 

 grow, but went on to Randazzo, a journey of twenty-six miles, which 

 occupied four hours in the slowest of slow trains. The rain had 

 ceased when I reached Randazzo, but the roads were filled with 

 puddles, and the herbage was soaked. I picked my way along 

 paths in order to find good collecting ground, but was not quite 

 successful, though before dusk the clouds passed over and small 

 coppers and little blues began to fly about. I then went to my 

 hotel, where I met with a true Sicilian welcome, having stayed there 

 at Easter, 1909. 



I was up early on the following morning ; the sun was really 

 bright, and snow-capped Etna rose above me in all its majestic 

 beauty. I took a different road, lane and cinder path, from those of 

 yesterday, and fortunately struck an ancient lava bed with wild 

 flowers growing abundantly in the patches between the rocks ; and, 

 to my great delight, almost the first butterfly that I captured was a 

 female orange-tip, which I have since learnt is Euchlo'c damone. 

 The males were quite lovely, and led me a fine dance among the 

 loose rocks, my shins suffering very severely until I learnt to exercise 

 care — experientia docet. On climbing higher up the mountain slope a 

 surprise awaited me. Thais f>ofyxe/ia var. cassandra was quite a 

 novelty, somewhat resembling a moth, and flying quietly, almost close 

 to the ground, when disturbed. Next I took a favourite species of 

 mine, Aporia cratcegi, apparently far away from hawthorn. An attempt 

 is being made to name the Sicilian form var. augusta. Then that 

 lovely fritillary Dryas pandora appeared, and attempted to " sneak 

 off," as is its habit. I had to hurry up, for clouds quickly gathered, 

 and by noon rain fell and spoiled the rest of the day. On the day 

 following I had a similar experience — bright morning, rainy after- 

 noon ; and the weather becoming unsettled I returned to Messina, 

 rejoicing that I had secured my " sulphur orange-tip " and numerous 

 common species, such as M. d/ixia, E. cardamines, blues, etc. 



After my visit to Mount Etna I paid attention to the marbled 

 white butterflies. I searched for M. japygia in the locality where I 

 took two specimens in 1909. Probably I was too early, as I failed 

 to get it, and later on I was otherwise engaged. Then I was able to 

 go to Syracuse on three separate occasions to look for Zeller's 

 M. galatea, which he named var. syi-acusana. He took it in 1842, 

 and I was assured that it is not there now. At my third visit I got 

 three rather damaged specimens, and I made a note for future use 

 that while my train was stopping at the roadside station of Megara 

 Iblea — nearly twenty miles from Syracuse — a brood of marbled 

 whites, which may or may not be var. syraciisana, hovered about the 

 train and almost invaded the compartment in which I sat. At 

 Messina the form of J/, galatea is always dark and is known as var. 

 procida. In 1909 I took one specimen only, but in 19 10, by 



