228 THE ENTUMUL(KtIST's KECORD. 



wings, broken only by the nervures and discoidal lunule of the ground- 

 colour ; the hindwings without any of the darker markings, the inner 

 area uniform yellow, the outer reddish-purple. This magnificent form 

 one might call ab. <(»ijiincta, n. ab. Kane says (Japhnc " flies low, like 

 the ]\Ielitaeas ; " on the contrary, my experience is that it flies much 

 like A. (oJipjh-. High up the mountains MeUtaca aitrinia var. iiicni/ir 

 was still on the wing, whilst near the summits of tlie (Irammont and 

 Mont de la Saxe M. cynthia and ^[. astciii' were to be taken. The 

 abundant jNIelitaeid, however, was M. (lidi/iiia — it met one everywhere 

 — there were females of every possiljle description, some fulvous-red 

 and approaching the nuile in colour, others of a paler, yellowish, 

 ground-colour, with distinct black spots, others of a dull fulvous, with 

 the spots more or less blending with the ground-colour, others with 

 the ground-colour pale in the four costal spaces, but the remainder of 

 the surface green -grey, and the black markings very pronounced = a)). 

 alpina, Stand. Strange to say I did not see M. cin.ria, but M. I'lmchr 

 gave me a few beautiful examples, some of which might be perhaps 

 referred to Staudinger's more variegated ab. occitcotira. I do not 

 know whether we have a lepidopterist in Britain who is comfortably 

 at home when considering M. afJialia, M. (Jicti/nna, M. partlwuie and 

 relatives. One might fairly divide the specimens obtained here into the 

 larger, coarser M. at/udia and the smaller, neater-looking M. partlwitir. 

 One suspects, however, that they have all hatched from the same 

 batches of eggs, -and one observes also that the dark .V. iWrti/nna occurs 

 with some very ordinary-looking Al. atJialia, in the Val Ferrex. 

 Papilio iKj(J(diriiis, P. inarJiaon and (rnnriiteri/.r rhaiimi were all some- 

 what rare at the time of year I was collecting in the neighbourhood, 

 whilst I'dniassiiis ajinlln was very abundant. 7\ (lcliii>i, however, which 

 I found at La Thuile does not appear to reach so far down as Pre St. 

 Didier. Aporia rrataeni is common. J'ieris brasHicac, P. rapac, 

 abundant — the cabbage-plants were Y>eviect\y skeletonised in the gardens 

 around Courmayeur — and P. napi ab. napacac was not abundant, 

 although the few examples seen were fond of joining the blues at the 

 waterfalls that break over the road down by the Dora banks. /VVr/.s 

 calluUir only occurred high on the mountains, and then not abun- 

 dantly, whilst 7'. (laiilidice was not uncommon by the roadsides just 

 below Pre St. Didier. Lciicdjiliasia xinapi.'^ was fairly common, and ab. 

 eri/sinii in fair proportion. < 'alias jialaenn, not common, ('. /i/iininioiu' 

 in great abundance, high on the mountains, all roimd, but rarely 

 descending lower than Courmayeur, and only once seen near Pre St. 

 Didier. ( 'nli((s Injalc not uncommon, but ( '. rditsa quite rare, unless 

 the autumn brood had only just commenced to emerge. I captured a 

 very fine ( '. hjicdv with my Angers in the road between Courmayeur 

 and Pre St. Didier, so absorbed was it in sucking up the moisture from 

 a puddle left by the water-cart. (iimcpti'ri/.r r/umnii is not common 

 until one gets lower down the valley. Now and then one flnds a spot 

 haunted by Thcrla spiiii, generally a mass of Scdmii in blossom proves 

 a most attractive bait. ('/ir;/sop/iaiuis rin/aiirear, as might be expected, 

 abounds, the ? being of the zcniuittcnsis form, of a yellow-brown ground 

 colour rather than copper, and the trans\erse row of black spots much 

 elongated, the hind-wings also mueb sulTused. C /lijijidtlKir (c/iriixris) 

 only seems to occui' above Cournuiyeur and not at Pi'o St. Didier, but I 

 found a locality for <'. i/nnliiis, from which, however, I only obtained 



