86 
THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
M. Car uana Gatto, my uncle, and that of my own, 
I was, I am sorry to say, unable to find any other 
in the island. 
Father Libassi had one which up to some time 
ago could be seen at the University of Valletta, 
but having been badly kept and neglected it was 
quite useless, “There remaining nothing in it” as 
Mr. Fraser observed in a letter written to “Nature' 1 
in 1889 “but an empty box”. The late Prof. (Julia 
also had one, which he utilized for his “Corso di 
Entomologia”, but it appears that it is now no 
longer in existence. 
The oldest lists of Maltese insects extant is a 
manuscript one which was drawn up by Dr. 
Schembri the late Rector of Valletta U niversity.For 
many’ years it lay in the library of the institution 
unknown to any one, until through the kindness of 
Prof. N. Tagliaferro it was brought to my notice 
and used by me. It is, however, nothing but a 
mere enumeration of the species that were contain- 
ed in the collection of Father Libassi: and ii it 
there are 13 Rapoloceri, five of which I do not 
think were taken in Malta, and this, because there 
are several other examples in the same collection, 
that are certainly foreign to the island. These 
five species are Pitris napi , P. crotaegi , Satyrvs 
bathseba , Arginnis aclippe and C olios hyale. 
The other species are : — Papilio machaon , Va- 
nessa atalanta , V. Cardui , Piet is brassicce , Saty- 
rus janira, S. maegera , Rhodocera rhamni. 
In a series of letters writting by Mr. George 
Waring under the title of “Letters of a naturalist 
from Malta and Sicily” and published in 1843 
there is a brief reference to the Colias ednsa , to 
Papilio machaon arid to the Pieris brassica: which 
were found here. W. Tallack in his book “Malta 
under the Phoenicians-, Knights, and English” 1861 
adds P. Dap lid ice, C. hyale , Pol ageslis and II. 
Janira. 
The first book which treated exclusively of Mal- 
tese insects was the “Corso elementaredi Entorno- 
logia maltese” which was published in 1858 by Prof. 
G. Gulia; but the elementary character of the work, 
and the abundance of uncertain facts and. undeter- 
mined species take away a great deal of the value 
that it would otherwise have had. Referring to 
the butterflies, Prof. Gulia enumerates the follow- 
ing 12 species: — P. brassicoe et. var. crucivora , P. 
napi , Rhodocera rhamni , R. cleopatra , V, atalanta , 
Ochsenhumeria cardui, P. machaon , P. podalirius , 
E. edusa , C. lesbia , Polyam. phle.as , P . argus. 
Of these P. podalirius , P. napi , C. lesbia, Pol. 
argus and the var, crucivora of P. brassicce have 
no right to be figured among the Maltese species; 
and consequently in his “Repertorio di Storia Na- 
turale” which was kindly lent to me by Dr. Gulia 
I find that under the heading Farfett (the Maltese 
word for butterflies in general) lie has left out the 
last three species, and added instead II. janira, II. 
maegera, C. pamphtlus , and P. daplidice which 
were at first omitted. 
Of this “Repertorio” but very few copies were 
originally printed, and the work is, therefore, now 
a very rare one. 
The Rev. G. Godwin in his little volume “The 
Geology, Botany, and Natural History of the 
Maltese Islands, 1882” refers to the above men- 
tioned entomological course, but without nothing 
either the corrections or the addenda. 
More recently still, Mr. Fraser inserted a short 
note “Maltese butterflies” in “Nature ’’January 2nd. 
1890, wherein he mentions G or 8 species by their 
English names, and notes the smaller proportions 
of the Maltese species when compared with the 
same species on the Continent; and among others 
that he says he observed flying about in the garden 
of his hotel at Sliema were the “Tortoise shells” 
under which name are included Vanessa urticae, 
and the V. polycroos. I am, however, inclined 
to think that he must have mistaken these for V. 
cardui, and the V. atalanta which are often so 
changed in appearance by r exposure to wind and 
rain as to make them at first sight appear to be- 
long to other species; for there can be no doubt 
but that neither V. urticae nor V. polycroos exist 
in the islands much less are they to be found in 
abundance, as Mr. Fraser asserts. 
Kirby in his “European Butterflies ’, too, assigns 
Malta as being an habitat of C. hyale, and C. edusa, 
and he states that they make their first appearance 
in February. For my part I am more inclined to 
the opinion expressed by Dr. Staudinger, that 
the faded variety of the female C. edusa , must 
have been mistaken for C. hyale. 
The following catalogue comprises the species 
which were observed and collected by me. 
