286 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



AMONG THE BUTTERFLIES IN CORSICA. 



By R. S. Standen, F.L.S., F.E.S. 



It had long been a favourite project of mine to visit some 

 outlying province of Europe where the insect fauna should 

 present strongly-marked characteristics, either tropical or arctic; 

 and when my friend Mr. Albert Jones suggested Corsica, I rose 

 to the bait like a hungry fish. A few days before that fixed for 

 leaving England, my friend found that he must postpone his 

 departure for another week, but Mr. G. C. Champion, also an old 

 friend, kindly stepped into the breach, and at 11 o'clock on the 

 morning of May 28th last we left Charing Cross for Marseilles, 

 arriving at this southern metropolis in a blistering sun at 10.30 

 on the following morning. The packet for Ajaccio started at 4 

 o'clock the same afternoon, and by 6.30 on the morning of the 

 30th, after a passage of absolute tranquillity, we lay anchored in 

 the broad harbour of the capital. 



An amber haze still hung over the town, spreading itself along 

 the overlapping hills that encircled it and ran on, range behind 

 range, to the far end of the wide bay. The water was alive with 

 small boats, hurrying up to secure the new arrivals. The 

 process by which this is affected is by no means soothing to the 

 nerves ; eventually, however, we reached the quay, and there we 

 had to force our way through a lot of swarthy ruffians who 

 fought for our belongings as the boatmen had fought for our 

 persons. 



After depositing our effects at the railway station, we unfurled 

 our " engins de chasse " and set out for a long morning's work 

 along the coast. A grove of eucalyptus just outside the station 

 reminded us that this side of the town has a reputation not 

 wholly unconnected with fever, but the self-assertive Opuntia 

 vulgaris, with its lovely orange tufts of bloom, and the aggressive 

 blades of the Agave americana which lined the shore, awakened 

 such reminiscences of another hemisphere in the breast of my 

 companion, that the sun's vertical rays streamed down on him 

 unobserved ; at all events we soon forgot our proximity to the 

 malarious Campo dell' oro, and stepped gaily aside into a cheery 

 little dell, where it was clear that my net and my friend's little 

 bottles would soon be brought into requisition. 



A dusky and very hirsute form of Epinephele, which proved to 

 be ianira var. hispulla, at once appeared in considerable numbers. 

 Then, in succession, Lyccena astrarche, L. icarus, Polyommatus 

 phloeas, with its dark ab. eleus, Pieris brassic(B and rapce, large and 

 strongly marked, Papilio machaon ab. sphyrus, P. podalirius, and 

 one fine example of Lyhithea celtis. In the afternoon, on the 

 north side of the town, in addition to some of the foregoing, I 

 obtained several P. daplidice and two Spilothyrus althece. 



