MIGRATION AND DISPERSAL OF INSECTS } LEPIDOPTERA. 1GSy/ 
It is of course well known that P. cardi flies all through the winter 
in the north of Africa from Egypt to Algeria, laying its eees and con- 
tinuing to raise its broods during this season, and that it is usually 
very abundant in the imago state in March and April. 
This migration was noticed as far north as the 50th degree of 
latitude, and an unusual abundance of the species was observed over 
the whole of England, Germany, Hungary, and even as far north as 
Finland, where all the early arrivals were remarkably worn and faded. 
In Wirtemberg, from June 1st to 8th, a continuous and incessant 
stream of migrating individuals passed from the south and south-west, 
to the north, north-east, and east. At Wettsweil, on June 7th, it was 
estimated that 11,000 specimens passed an observer in the course of 
the day. On the same day flights were noticed at many places in 
south-west Germany, Switzerland, and Moravia, and near Zurich 
another observer estimated that 1000 passed over his head in eight 
minutes. On the 9tha swarm passed Morges and Lausanne, their transit 
occupying almost four hours. On the 10th they were seen at Carlsruhe, 
and on this date the migration was observed by Oberthiir at Rennes, 
and he calculated that the butterflies moved about 50 métres in ten 
seconds ; sometimes twenty or thirty would be seen in a single minute 
following one another without interruption, sometimes four or five close 
together ; they flew over all obstacles, passing vertically up the walls of 
houses in their way, always surmounting such obstacles and not passing 
round them. On the 11th swarms were seen at Nancy and in Savoy, 
at 600 metres above the sea, and also at Salzburg. On the same day 
they were observed at Carlsruhe again, and at Stuttgart, and on 
June 14th the commune of Wetzikon (Canton Zirich) was invaded, 
the swarm being estimated at a kilometre in width, and as taking 
two hours to pass, the insects flying from 2-10 métres above the 
eround, and moving in a north-westerly direction. In Upper Austria, 
on June 11th, vast numbers passed incessantly from south-west to 
north-east, between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. (ninety to a hundred per 
minute were counted in a breadth of one hundred paces), whilst still 
more to the west, at Geneva, a swarm is reported to have obscured the 
sun for several minutes, and on the 8th, at Bisheim, in Alsace, they 
were also so abundant that the light was partly obscured. Still 
farther west, and going back in point of time, from June 3rd-9th, 
great swarms were observed flying northwards at Strasburg, whilst at 
Angers, on the 10th, myriads passed from east to west against the wind, 
travelling at a little distance above the ground. On the 10th the insect 
appeared in great abundance in England, and about the same time in 
Belgium. On the 12th it was observed at Lautschitz, in Bohemia, on 
the 15th at Augsburg, and again at Salzburg, passing between four 
and five o’clock in the afternoon, at the rate of about 750 butterflies 
inan hour. Streams of them were noticed every day from the 10th 
to the 16th, near Paris, being especially abundant on the 15th. After 
this date the observations chiefly refer to the localities in which 
various parts of the migrating broods had settled. 
There can be no doubt that our British visitors were part of the 
great flocks that were observed in the act of dispersal at this time. 
How far these reached to the south and east was not ascertained, but 
a Painted Lady was seen at the time sunning itself on the bare rocks 
in the Great Desert of Nefud in Central Arabia, ‘‘ at least 400 miles 
from any place where the larva could haye fed up.”’ 
