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1955
The Lepidopterists' News
203
ESPECIALLY FOR FIELD COLLECTORS
(Under the supervision of James R. Merritt)
EDITORIAL NOTE
In the last issue of the News an editorial announcement outlined the plans of the committee to promote a special section of the News for field collectors. In response I received a number of provocative and thoughtful letters for which the committee is grateful. These letters contained a multitude of excellent suggestions which eventually will be reflected on these pages. It is a pleasure also to report the generous way in which the expert lepidopterists replied to pleas for articles.
In this issue appears the first one of a series of articles on collecting localities. Some of the localities are famous and others are comparatively unknown. To achieve as much variety as possible in these articles and to exploit the imagination and ingenuity of the authors, no form or content was prescribed for the locality series. Some of the articles are in the nature of collecting guides while others deal with geology, flora, climate, and lists of species. Because the spring collecting season begins earliest in the South, it is appropriate to start the series with an account of collecting in southern Florida.
The committee contemplates some commentaries on techniques both basic and unusual. Drs. C. A. Clarke and P. M. SheppARD were kind enough to prepare a paper describing in some detail the important hand-pairing technique. This article will appear soon in the News.
William E. Sieker of Wisconsin, who specializes in the Sphingidas, has agreed to join the committee for this section of the News.
JAMES R. MERRITT, University of Louisville, Louisville, Ky., U. S. A.
ONE DAY'S SPECIES IN THE FRENCH ALPS
Even if my results do not reach the same number (38) of butterfly species caught in one day by Dr. REMINGTON, partly because I had only occasion to collect during short intervals in the course of an automobile trip in the French Alps, I think it might interest American lepidopterists to know how many butterfly species may be taken in a single day in Europe.
The day was not precisely the best collecting day of the season, being June 30, 1955, and in Europe as in the United States mid-July is by far the best time of the year. The district was the Massif de la Grande Chartreuse which is located between Geneva in Switzerland and Grenoble in Eastern France, a genuine mountain locality densely grown with deciduous forests with numerous clearings where grass and flowers are found in profusion. The trip was not very long, some 15 miles in either direction, so that the territory covered was rather limited.
The species taken were the following:
PAPILIONID/E. — Parnassius apollo, comm.
PIERID/5L — Aporia cratcegi, v. comm.; Leptidea sinapis, rare.