A WEEK IN LA PALikIA, CANARY ISLANDS, iN iW(*) (Recibilo e1 1O.VTII. 33) 9Y H.G. Allcard, F.R .%.S. (t)and Anthony Valletta,F.R.E.S Tn September 1931 ve visited La Palma for the first time and were impressed by the large nunber of Pirris cheiranthi Hbn.f .benchoavonsis pinker seen flying in the mountainous forestal ares of the northern part Of the island, añd as in suc'h a habitat nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) ras norhere to be seen, ve wondered rhat the larval foodplant could be. We adchieved little on that risit as the dull aeather had limited our field rork to a fea hours. On this occasian, having elloied more time, le planned to discover the alternative food- plant in that island and also h3pe4 to come acrass the female of Conepteryx palmae Stamm. as re sar only fresh males in 1931 having Seen a bit early for the second brood. We left together from Cataick Airport on the morning of June the 8th and after a pieasant light arrived at Tenerife. There re changed plane and flea straight to La Palma, a short flight f only 20 minutes. We stayed as before at the San Miguel Hotel at Santa Cruz de La Palma. As t ras 5:15 p.m. ahen re got there, re could do nothing that day except have a drink and a rest n a bar and esJoy the fresh breeze blowing from the sea. 9th. June. Starting at 10 a.m. ae drove by taxi to the forestal area, climbing up to along the only road on the east coast. After over one hour's driving round many aakaard gerous bends, now going uphill then doanhill, noa through tunnels then over bridges, re at our destination. Along the road re saw quite a good number of Pieris rapae L. es- close to the cottages rhich at this time of the year had their gardens re11 set ríth of the season: glad ioli, hollyhocks, Madonna lilies, Begonia, Antirrhinum and Geraníum rent colours. The Datura arborea trees aere loaded 03th. white hanging trumpets and the gave a magnificent display of red or pink flowers. We had to wait ti11 12:20 to see P. cheiranthi coming don to the road from the aooded mountains high above. haa passed their best but's5me-of the females rere stíll quite fresh. Several Pararge xiphioides Staud. visited the floaers and a coupie of colias crocea Ceoffr. fler rapidly along bhe road; even here P. rapae ras out in large numbers. At 3:40 re had to pack up as clouds 'started to cover the area. 10th. June. Once more re tried the same locality but re stopped half ray for an hour &-clase- to Tunel de la Galga where many wild flowers aere blooming and laurel trees covered the erges of the barranco and the slopes of the mountain. Here re came across the first C. palmae, female feeding at the flowers of Rubus ulmifolius; it seemed that it had been on the ring for Ome time as it ras quite rorn. Manxolajurtinafortunata Alph. ras very common in the shaied egetation. The other species already mentioned were fairly common and in good condition exCept or the P. cheiranthi. We drove further up for the rest of the day. almae both males and emales, came our aay but this time it seemed that we rere late for bbrood. Here G- zpir;a vul cania God. and Pandoriana pandora D. 8 S., rere seen. k Beatlng the vegetation by the roadside to disturb microlepidoptera and other insects, re came across a plant with tiny ahite flowers and rhilst admiring its beauty our gaze fe11 on a well-bítten leaf. We put our nets and bags aside and started to search. Turning the leaf, to our great Joy and excitement re sar a cluster of tiny caterpillars and under another leaf a >'batch of yelloa eggs. Then close to the ground ae found almost fully grorn caterpillars which 'looked very much like those of Pieria braasicae L. As P. brassícae L. is not found in the Gcanaries re felt sure they rere the larvae of p. cheiranthi. We took a couple of leaves and ?a bract of floaers for the identification of tne plant. It turned out to be Crambe strigosa iL'H6r. (Cruciferae), a small shrub groring up to 1.5 m. hígh in the crevices and fissures of *the rocks as endemic plant. 11th. June. Thfs time re tried a different locality in the centre of the island - Mirator La Cumbrecita rhich is nearly 300 m. above sealevel. There was an extensive piantation Of PinUS Tanariensfs afth no vegetation growing underneath and there ras nothing flyfng about. le there- Crore took the road rhich leads to El Paso and stouued at a sDot rhich ras covered rith rild flor- -&sers. There re saw Lycaena phlaeas L., Aricia craiera Eschscholtz, P. rapae and C. crocea. Later 5-e stopped again by the side of a road named Buena Vista near Brena Alta rhere one could see a *.aost beautiful viea of a part of the east coast of the island. Liaht blue thistles covered a gfjgood part of the area. A number of butterflies rere visíting the fiowers and re could apot p. gCheiranthi, C. crocea including f. helicina Ob., L. phlaeas and M. jurtina f. fortunata. le stop- $sd further down at the old airport as on both siaes of the runray several plants rere being g'isited by butterflies. Here C. crocea and M. Jurtina rere plentiful, rhilst fresh Pontia da- %$!lidice L. and Thymelicus acteon christf Rb1. aere fairly common. T.. - - 12th. June. We took our earlier route to the north-east of the island as re considered - that as the best for lepidoptera. We stopped for a rhile beyond the Galga- Tunnel -as G.pa1- i :7*.) Este trabajo es el ultimo que preparó el estimado amigo y colega Harry Ganly ALLCARD antes 1 de su fallecLmiento,siendo en consecuencia su publicación pÓstuma,que ha llegado a SHILAP Ir gracias a su coautor VALLETTA. 1 - 319 - I wes feeding on the Lantene arid des, P. cheiranthi(most1y femeles) -a. We-G. palmae appare glandulosa, but as the tree was be Later we took a female with batter any eggs she might still have. Unfortunately there was no sun during the remaining two days, she did not feed and so she died. 13th. June. There was no sun al1 the day and nothing on the wind except P. rapae. 14th. June. The weather was even worse and it rained up to 2:OO p.m. As a last surprise we found a cluster of P. cheiranthi eggs on a small leaf of a wild cabbage plant. 15th. June. At 9:iO a.m. we flew to Tenerife; this time we landed at the old airport and, after paying a short visit to Dr. A. Machado to thank him personally for his help, we drove to the new airport to take the-plane back to Gatwick. Though we had to stay for five hours in Tenerife we could not do any collecting as it was anoti dull day. General remarks: Whilst P. cheiranthi is very localized in - Tenerife, being found at Puerto da la Cruz mostly in hotel gardens ~ and surrounding areas where nasturtium grows, in La Palma it is more widely distributed. We came across it al1 along the east coast from Los Sauces at the very top of the island down to the sea-front at the city of Santa Cruz. We were not after moths but we did not miss thosr that came our way. Beating the vegetation we disturbed the following Pyrales: Hymenia recurvalis Fabr ., ' Uresiphita limbalis D. & S ., ,Noma- phila noctuella D. & S .,Phiuche lividalis Hubn., Duponchelia fuvea- -lis Zell., Loxostege sulphuralis Hubn., .Mecyna asinalis Hubn., Sito- chroa paleaxs D. & S. and'rUdea ferrugalis Hubn. One evening whilst ae were having dinner at the Parador Hotel,; a Hawk-moth flew into the dining-room and after going round al1 the 1 lights rested on a curtain giving us the chance of identifying it as 1 Hyles lineata livornica Esp. Also on that evening, returning to our ; hotel we noticed the following Geometridae resting on the shop-windms: Cleora fortunata Black and Gymnoscelis rufifesciata Haw. B IBLIOGRAPHY Allcard, H.G. & Valletta A-., 1978. A week of collecting in Tenerife, Canary Islands, in September 1977. Entomologist 's Rec .J .Var. 90: 91-94. Allcard, H.G. & Valletta A,, 1981. The Canary Islands revisited in 1979. Ibid 93: 120-125. Allcard, H.G. Bt Vallettz A., 1952. Two weeks in the Canary Islands in 1981. Ibid. 94: 111-116. Bwnes, E.S.A ., 1961. Cenary Islands Butterilies. Entomolo&ist, 94: 262-262. Baez, E- er-5 O~=~KZG. lo?-. ~is;.teprel<r.iEzr de 10s ~inenj-teros&e 1~siEiaE c----: =&-=A AES .E01 .LSOC.es~.Ento~.. Vol. 2: 185-199.Sal~- -. 3=:a11a5a .!-rS--gz, J .j., 1978. gi~logíade ~vclvriusrtbjianus .- 3rullo) (~22;~gcarniaae) esgecie endémica ae las Islzs .- Canarias. Vierara. Vol. 6: 139-150. 3ramfJellS, David and Bramuells, Zoe. 1974. Wild Flowers of thr Canary-. Lslands ,Stanley. Tharnes (Publishers 1,L:t.d. L~ndon- and Burford. - --- - -_ - Brethrrton R.F. 1966. A Distribution List of the Buiterflies (Rhopalocera) of the Western and Southern Europe. Transactions of -the Society for British Entomology, 17, Part - 1. Chandler, Petrr J. 1979. Flies, Bees and Butterflies on La Palma-,- ._ Canary Islands in 1976. Entomologist 's Record, 91: 103-10'K-- .. Fernández, José M.