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J 954
The Lepidopte fists* News
143
BUTTERFLIES ON HILLTOPS by Vera Molesworth Muspratt
It has been with interest that I have read in The Lepidopterists News the articles on butterflies congregated on hilltops in America. Here too in the surrounding country of St. Jean-de-Luz, Basses Pyrenees, some species do exactly the same thing, and I have for some years now specially noted their behaviour on three hilltops in this region.
An undulating plain to the east of the Atlantic runs from Bayonne to the Spanish frontier in the south, and the depth is about 8^6 km. The Pyrenees start rising almost on the French coast at the frontier; running east they get higher as they get further inland but the first hi^h hill, 900 meters, is only about 91/i km. as the crow flies from St. Jean-de-Luz.
Two of my hilltops are on low lateral spurs of the higher hills; one stands alone on the plain. A great deal of this plain is uncultivated and covered principally in gorse and bracken. However, farms are dotted all over the country with cultivated fields near them; small woods are here and there, principally oak, and the valleys have been cultivated for centuries. On the N. W. side of these hills there is a large stretch of uncultivated land swept by the western gales from the Atlantic; it is on the N.E. or S. that the nearest farms are found below the hilltops. Only occasionally butterflies are found on the higher hills, and I think this uncultivated land is unattractive to most of them.
The species involved are Papilio podalirius L., Papilio machaon L., and Pararge me gar a L., and to a lesser extent Vanessa atalanta L. and Aglais urticce L. The first three are sedentary, the latter migrants. The two Papilio are scattered in the region but are not seen anywhere on the plain in numbers; only once have I seen P. podalirius in profusion in a valley, having evidently just emerged from a hedge in which was a quantity of their food plant. Both these species are not in great numbers on the hilltops—8, 10, or 12 at the appropriate times of the year. P. meg&ra is common everywhere but evidently also likes hilltops as they are to be found there in greater numbers than anywhere else. The food plants for the larvae of these three species are all more or less near to the hilltops but are also all over the plain.
V. atalanta overwinters with us in small numbers. They are also scattered all over the region and come out on sunny days in the winter and spring when the temperature is 10° C. in the shade. Very few are seen in late spring and summer. A. urticce is curiously a very rare species in this region; since 1923 I have only seen one specimen, apart from the few I have observed only on one hilltop. I have never found any larvae of either of these species in spite of numerous Nettles everywhere, and I think that they must go farther north to lay.
144
MUSPRATT: Butterflies on Hilltops
Vol.8: no.5
The highest of the three hilltops is the Redoute Louis XIV and is 244 m. alt. On top there are a couple of rows of old oak trees banked at the back with earthworks, but there are gaps in the rows so that many bushes and bracken are in full sun like the trees.
On sunny days at the appropriate season P. podalirius and P. machaon are found up there. They fly in a leisurely fashion (though not easy to catch), coming and going, and very often come back to the same twig, leaf, or frond to bask in the sun. If they go to the N.W. side of the hill they come back fairly quickly; sometimes they circle around in a more or less definite pattern. Both V. atalanta and A. urticce have a bolder quicker flight, but they also fly often in a pattern. Of course at certain times they probably go off for good to the north or south according to the season, but I have not actually seen this as I have seen V. atalanta in my garden in autumn.
P. megcera is about on the hilltops in places that are stony and bare, no pattern to their flight; as long as they are in full sun and out of a cool breeze they seem content.
The second hilltop, 98 m. alt., is unnamed and is a slightly higher part of a ridge that runs above a valley which is just above sea level; quite close to the top eastwards the ground falls steeply to the river and is clothed in thickets. Here I have only seen P. podalirius, 2 or 3 together behaving in the same manner as on the Redoute; V. atalanta is there too, 2 or 3, also a few P. megcera. But this hilltop has no trees to the west so it is less sheltered from the wind than the others.
Ste. Barbe, the third hill, is about 200 m. alt., and stands quite alone above the plain. E.S.E of Bayonne it can be seen from a distance; also the view is extensive. Here I have seen greater numbers of butterflies than on the other two hills with the exception of A. urticce. This hilltop is sheltered by trees to the north and west, and short grass covers the top. Great numbers of P. megcera are here, mostly on the ground or short grass, and the other three species fly around in the same fashion as they do on the Redoute.
One year I found great numbers of Everes argiades Pallas, all in a very poor condition; egg laying and mating in their case seemed to me a thing of the past; E. argiades is sedentary.
I once observed P. machaon trying to mate on the Redoute but I think that for all these species it is space, height, also perhaps on hot days the breeze may be some attraction, as it is for me! As to the sexes there are more S S than 9 9 but the latter are present, and for the Papilio one 9 to 5 or 6 &: S . I do not think that food, mating or laying has anything to do with their presence on the hilltops as this further note seems to show.
In the central Pyrenees there is one species, Synchloe callidice Esper, which haunts some of the very high summits in July. I have seen them more than once on mountain tops of 3000 m. alt. and over, and it is specially because of their behaviour in these high regions that I think it is height that the butterflies like when they go up to these summits and nothing else.
1954
The Lepidopterists' News
145
About the 10th of July in 1936 or 1937 I climbed the Pic Long, 3194 m. alt.; there had been a lot of snow that year and this rocky peak was completely draped in snow from about 150 m. below the summit to 1700 m. beneath it, and in many places lower. While I was resting on a bit of uncovered rock half way up the northern glacier, a S. callidice perched itself on my knee; it was a lady, too friendly to catch of course, and anyhow the net was in the sack! We left our sacks alas! on rocks about 150 m. beneath the summit and as we had nearly climbed to the top S. callidice whizzed past us. We counted about 15 to 20 S. callidice flying around that summit at their usual terrific pace. They came up from below, flew round and down again, there and gone in a second, never rested and were quite impossible to catch. Even with a net I doubt if we would have captured more than one or two as on every side of this very pointed summit the rock is almost perpendicular for at least 150 m. so we had to move with care. Amongst these butterflies there were 3 or 4 9 9 ; no signs of mating, nothing for them to feed on, not even a sign of a rock plant let alone any flowers. Their behaviour was that of pure "joie de vivre". These butterflies must have come from at least 1700 m. beneath the Pic Long and flown up over glacier and snow just to circle round the top; we were there two hours, and they were still at it when we left. Their behaviour on other high peaks is always the same, but it must be a sunny day with no wind or very little.
Ai'ce Choko, St. Jean-de-Luz, Basses Pyrenees, FRANCE
ARISTOTLE'S DESCRIPTION OF THE LIFE HISTORY OF A BUTTERFLY (PSYCHE)
THOSE (animals) called psyches develop from caterpillars which grow on green leaves, especially on those of rhaphanus, which some call cabbage; first they are less than grains of millet, then they grow into small grubs and in three (a few) days into little caterpillars; after this they grow more and then become quiescent and change their shape and are called chrysalides and have a hard shell; but they move if they are touched. They are attached (to a surface) by spider-silky filaments; they have no mouth or any other obvious organs; after no long passage of time the shell bursts open and out fly the winged creatures which we call psyches.
From a transcript by Professor C. D. GORDON (McGill University) of the passage in the Paris Edition (1887) of Aristotle's works. The words in the first and third parentheses have been interpolated for clarity; the other indicates that the Greek word trisin, three, may have been textually incorrect and should have been tisin, few.
Sir D'ARCY W. THOMPSON, who has given us a translation of Aristotle's Historia Animalium, thinks that the butterfly referred to was Pieris brassier.
P. H. H. GRAY, Box 236, Macdonald College, Que., CANADA