292 THE entomologist'.s kecord. 



but owini^:, perhaps, to the lateness of the season my hii<:; was nil. The 

 chestnut forests, in which it undoubtedly occurs later, clothe the lower 

 slopes of the mountains on every side, and very beautiful they are. 

 Twice I saw single specimens in the M'oods below Sta. Maria, but I 

 was not fortunate enough to get either. Kane gives the end of the 

 Susa valley as one of the European localities — the furthest west I 

 should think — but July and not June, for this particular place, would 

 seem a more accurate time of appearance. I'l/raincis atalania, V. 

 canini, and Aijlais urticar, all evidently hybernators, with an occasional 

 out-at-elbows Knvanesm autiojia. Euf/nnia jioh/rldoros, on the con- 

 trary, was in fine condition, and occurred in the neighbourhood of the 

 vineyards, the paths leading through which, in the late afternoon, 

 were much frequented by J'oli/j/onia ('(jca, and more rarely P. c-alhuiti. 

 P. et/ca was evidently freshly emerged, as I neither saw nor took a 

 single worn specimen, but in these narrow vineyard ways it was by no 

 means easy to net, whether sitting on the irregular stone work of the 

 walls, in the crevices of which it appeared to pass the night, or rising 

 suddenly from the hopelessly stony mule tracks. Libytheidae. — 

 Libijthca cdtiti : this was the insect par exrvllence of the neighbourhood. 

 I first found it on the stony ground high iip on the left bank of the 

 Dora, above Susa town, on June 23rd. But it was much commoner 

 on the Sta. Maria road, where it would settle on moisture and mule- 

 droppings, starting up on my approach, but generally flying no further 

 than a convenient perch of hazel branch, whence it was easily removed. 

 I had never seen the insect on the wing before, and am now much 

 puzzled, to describe its method of flight. It rather suggests a cross 

 between Paraiije eficria and A;ilais tirticac. Further, I could find no 

 plant of CeUh australis, its known food-plant, in the hills about Sta. 

 Maria (which run up to 3,000ft.), though it may grow lower down. 

 With regard to the hybernation of this species there seems to be some 

 doubt. In his luimjiean Jhdtcrjiics, quoting from Hiibner, 447-9, Ochsen- 

 heimer, i. 2, p. 192, and Godart, Hitit. Xat. des Lepidoiitercn de France, Dr. 

 Lang gives March as the time of appearance, and again from January 

 to July, which latter statement the author has informed me is a mis- 

 print. Mr. Merrifield says that, in a backward year, he took it early 

 in June, at Crevola, on the Italian side of the Simplon, none of 

 his specimens, with a single exception, being in good condition. He 

 thought they were hybernated ; but if the insect appears in March in 

 the Italian localities, these may have been a remnant of the first brood, 

 while the one fresh specimen may have been the forerunner of the 

 brood which I found out in such perfect condition at Susa. This 

 view is further supported by a record of Miss Fountaine's {Entom., 

 XXX., 11), in which she mentions a single /.. <rltis at Taormina, 

 Sicily, in June ; l)ut Mr. Leech, who was there at the end of March, 

 makes no mention of it {I'lnttux., xvii.). In Jhittcrjiies ( if the Fiiviera, 

 p. 51, Mr. F. Bromilow gives " January, and again from March to the 

 end of July," and mentions the capture of a full-grown larva on May 

 lath, which appears to point to the probability of the January appear- 

 ance being hyl)ernations of the June or second brood. I notice, too, 

 that Mr. Lang, in his current papers on European Lepidoptera in 

 Science (rotisiji, makes no mention of the cherry as an alternative food 

 for the larva. Neither at Digne (Donzel) nor at Susa, so far as 1 

 could observe, does Celt is austral is grow, but in both places the cherry, 



