JOURNAL OF VARIATION. 



Vol. XL No. 12. December 15th, 1899. 



Three seasons among Swiss Butterflies. 



By G. WHEELEK. 



Whilst the number of EngHsh lepidopterists workmg (or playing ?) 

 from time to time in Switzerland increases annually, a growing 

 experience convinces me that few know how much may be done in a 

 comparatively short time, even by those who are hampered by " Doctor's 

 orders," and to whom steep climbs, stern chases, and really long walks 

 are simple impossibilities. As I have succeeded during the last three 

 seasons, even with these drawbacks, in collecting 146 difterent species 

 of butterflies, or including named varieties 182, of which all but four 

 species have been taken by myself, it seems not impossible that some 

 account of the times and places of their capture may prove of interest 

 to Anglo-Swiss collectors. With the exception of two species, one at 

 least of Avhich {T.i/cacna arras), if not both, may be taken in the neigh- 

 bourhood of jMontreux, the whole collection was taken in the cantons 

 of Vaud and Valais, /.."., in the lower Ehone valley and its neighbour- 

 hood, and the number of species which these localities aflbrd is even 

 then by no means exhausted. 



The nucleus of my collection was formed at Veytaux, near Chillon, 

 between the 6th and the 21st of April, 1897, and the hunting-ground was 

 confined to a few fields in the immediate neighbourhood of the village. 

 The species taken at this time were Picris rapac, P. napi, Kuvldo'e carda- 

 iitines, (rnnepterij.v rluunni, Callophrj/s rtihi, Pohjommatiis a;/estis, P. 

 icants, Nowiadt's Ki'iiiiarniis, X. ci/llani'i, Cupido minima, Kiira)iessa 

 antiopa (hybernated, but in splendid condition), Cocnonijiiipha pamphilHs, 

 St/ric/itlntu alrcnlus and Xisouiades tai/c^. V. adlanis was so abundant 

 that 1 hastily concluded that it was a very common species, an idea 

 which the experience of two later seasons has greatly naodified, if not 

 reversed ; among the specimens w^as a ? much suti'used with blue on 

 the upper side, the only blue $ I have as yet seen. 



On April 21st a move was made to Chietre, near Dex. At the 

 l)ack of the Pension Mcesching, which stands on a hill in the midst of 

 splendid walnut and chestnut trees, was a field of dandelions (grown 

 here as food both for man and beast), which was very prolific iii Pa/dlin 

 iiiacliadit, and produced also an occasional /'. iiddaliriiiti. The fields 

 and lanes in the neighbourhood produced, in addition to the species 

 taken at Veytaux, yiy^orm rmtactji, ('hri/snidianus durilis, Pohjommatm 

 donjlas, Xi'ini'dbias Incina, Aniynni^^ lathonia, and on May 16th one 

 specimen of Erdna medKna. 



