THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
107 
— which causes the frequent occurrences of the 
same forms; and from the want of contrast in 
the markings and colour. Beside, thir abundance 
on the continent takes from them much of the 
interest that the collector might otherwise have 
had in them. 
Thus of the elegant Vanes sae we have only the 
V. cardini and the V. atalanta and these occur 
in great numbers. Of the Theclae, Melitae , the 
Arginni , the Melanargiae and of the family of 
the Hesperidae we have none; and only two 
species of the pretty Licenae are found. But on 
the northern coast of Africa and in Sicily all of 
these genera are largely represented. 
The non presence of plants adapted for their 
nourishment affords another reason for their 
absence; but it is not such that double the 
number of species might not find nourishment on 
our indigenous plants. The nettle is very common 
here, and we have not the Vanessa io , nor the 
Urticae; the Parietaria is extremely common as 
well, but the Vanessa egea is not met with; P. 
napi , A. crataegi , Thais polixena, and many of the 
Arginni and Saliridae which do not grace our 
country would also be able to find nourishment 
here. 
With regard to the predominant colours, as one 
would expect, the light ones prevail and yellow is 
the most common. This led me to observe many 
times that it is really the best protection of the 
species which are more frequent from May to 
September, as they are scarcely visible on the soil 
covered with dry grass and parched herbage. 
Besides the relative rarity of the females in 
comparison with the males I note that the obser- 
vation made by Messrs Palumbo and Failla Te- 
daldi on the Sicilian species, that the summer 
forms are of a deeper colour and are much smaller 
than are those that prevail in other seasons, applies 
also to us. 
Lastly the best time for collecting is spring and 
autumn, when in the course of a ramble through 
the country one is sure of meeting almost all our 
butterflies. In winter most of the species are not 
to be seen and the others are never frequent. 
My notes refer to the general features of our 
butterfly-fauna, and, as I said, they are the result 
of observations that extended over but a short 
period. I make no pretensions of having exhausted 
the subject, but I wish on the contrary that further 
diligent researches may make additions to the list 
which I have given; still, I do not think that 
there will be much to add to it; but with reference 
to the moths I am in hopes of collecting a good 
number of interesting forms, which will enable me 
to do with them what I have already done with 
the butterflies. 
Note — To confirm what I said with regard to 
the absence of C alias diyale from Malta, Mr. Ph. 
de la Garde, R.N., has comunicated to me a letter 
which he had received from Mr. Kirby of the 
British Museum, who had determined for him as 
Colias edusa , var. htlice lib. a pale form taken by 
him at Marsa in May last, a variety which was 
mistaken for the hyale from which it could never 
be distinguished when on the wing. In the same 
month Mr. Briffa showed me another fine speci- 
men, almost perfectly white and with very dark 
wings, of this variety of C. edusa , which he 
had also taken at Marsa, coupled with a typical 
male of the deepest yellow. I think therefore 
that G. hyale may with certainty be eliminated 
from the list of Maltese species, substituting in 
its stead C. edusa,, ab. helice Hb. which though, 
much rarer is found in the same localities as the 
typical form. 
Alfred Caruana Gatto. 
Science Gossip. 
A new scientific periodical is about to be pub- 
lished at Florence under the title of u La Natural 
It is to be a “Universal review of the natural 
sciences and of their applications.” 
A French experimenter has discovered that if 
a mixture of|hydrocarbon vapors and air is led 
over a specially arranged platinum apparatus, the 
latter becomes heated almost to fusion, and will 
then remain luminous if suddenly plunged into 
water. 
At a recent meeting of the Zoological Society 
of London,, Mr. R. Lydekker read a paper on “The, 
Pleistocene Birds of Sardinia and Corsica. 
