AGRIADES THETIS. 391 



through the intervening years, which the year 1899, most favourable 

 all over our southern counties for this species, changed into a bold 

 bid not only for increase in its hardly-held haunts, but for extension 

 into suitable spots in their comparatively near neighbourhood. We 

 may here note that 1887, 1893, 1896, and 1899, were years in which 

 the species was exceptionally abundant in England. Rowland-Brown 

 notes how, in June 1900 (following a year of abnormal abundance of 

 this insect), he found a small colony in the Chiltern Hills, between 

 Kimble and Prince's Risborough, on ground that he knew well, and 

 where he had never seen it before, nor has been able to find it since. 

 Far different from our Kentish chalkhills are some of the habitats of 

 this species on the continent, whilst others are very similar; thus, 

 Lambillion says that, in Belgium, the insect is not rare in the lime- 

 stone districts, both at higher and lower elevations. It is reported from 

 an old quarry in Jersey. In northern France, Moore says that it lives 

 on the northern slope of the steep hillsides facing Sauchay, a locality 

 reminding one of a Surrey hillside with an abundance of juniper 

 bushes, and such a profusion of purple orchis, as to make the hill look 

 heather-clad at the end of June ; in Seine-et-Marne, it is very common 

 on the arid and hilly country around Gurcy; at Gresy-sur-Aix, it loves 

 the bush-covered slopes on the outskirts of the woods that clothe the 

 hills almost to their summit, where Hipparchia arethusa is perhaps the 

 most conspicuous butterfly, and grassy slopes alternate with vine- 

 yards and lucerne fields, w r hence A. thetis spreads into the meadows 

 lower down, in which large scattered lucerne bushes are to be 

 found, and where it fraternises with Plebeius argns (aegon), Polyo)ii- 

 matus liylas, Aricla astrarche, etc., but it is still more abundant at the 

 flowers on a small piece of waste land on the upper edge of the wood 

 near the top of the hills, where Agriodes coridon, Eve res argiades, and 

 hosts of larger species make rendezvous. Very different again are the 

 coast districts extending through la Vendee, the Charentes, and the 

 Bordelais as far as Bordeaux, described by Oberthiir. In la Vendee, 

 A. thetis is very abundant, whilst A. coridon is rare, and here these 

 inhabit the same ground as Anthrocera hippocrepidis var. occidentalis, 

 whilst in the Charentes, where A. coridon is most abundant, these 

 species are joined by Anthrocera fausta. Different again, are the steep 

 shaly slopes between Colmars and Alios in the beautiful Verdon valley ; 

 as also the waste and fallow weed-covered fields on the arid hillslopes 

 around Digne, particularly in the Eaux-Chaudes valley and the gorge 

 with its steep rocky sides, and welcome torrent, just beyond "the 

 baths," and the broad black mud-flats laid out by the river where this 

 torrent is carried across the bed of the Eaux-Chaudes stream, as w 7 ell 

 as the lucerne fields by its side; in August, 190G, the J s were in 

 abundance in the weed-covered fields, where it flew with large numbers 

 of Agriades coridon, Polyonnnatus icarus, and Aricia astrarche, and fewer 

 Polyonnnatus vieleager and P. kylas ; it also haunts the slopes from 

 Bourg d'Aru to the junction of the Veneon Valleys with the Romanche 

 Valley, again a very different habitat from those just described. 

 Standen notes it as occurring in June in a hot corner about a mile 

 from Vernet, a hollow bend of the road, sheltered from any breeze that 

 might be stirring, with Polyonnnatus icarus, P. escheri, Aricia astrarche, 

 Plebeius argus, Coenonyniplia arcania, Euchloe euphenoides, and many 

 other species. In Piedmont, near Aosta, the species was found with 



