Collecting in Japan 



Butterfly. — This species differs from M. minuta only in having 

 the black markings darker and the outer median bands of spots 

 on the upper side yellow. On the under side the pattern of the 

 markings is exactly as in M. minuta. It seems to me to be a 

 dark, aberrant form of M. minuta, but is very well marked, and 

 constant in a large series of specimens, so that we cannot be sure 

 until some one breeds these creatures from the egg. Expanse, 

 the same as that of M. minuta. 



Early Stages.— Unknown. 



Habitat, Arizona. 



In addition to the species of the genus Melittfa illustrated in our 

 plates there are a few others which are credited to our fauna, some 

 of these correctly and some erroneously, and a number of so-called 

 species have been described which are not true species, but varie- 

 ties or aberrations. 



COLLECTING IN JAPAN 



I was tired of the Seiyo-ken, the only hotel at which foreigners 

 could be entertained without the discomfort of sleeping upon the 

 floor. There is a better hotel in Tokyo now. I had looked out 

 for five days from my window upon the stinking canal through 

 which the tide ebbs and flows in Tsukiji. I felt if I stayed longer 

 in the lowlands that I would contract malarial fever or some other 

 uncomfortable ailment, and resolved to betake myself to the moun- 

 tains, the glorious mountains, which rise all through the interior 

 of the country, wrapped in verdure, their giant summits capped 

 with clouds, many of them the abode of volcanic thunder. So I 

 went by rail to the terminus of the road, got together the coolies 

 to pull and push my jinrikishas, and, accompanied by a troop of 

 native collectors, made my way up the Usui-toge, the pass over 

 which travelers going from western Japan into eastern Japan 

 laboriously crept twelve years ago. 



What a sunset when we reached an elevation of three thou- 

 sand feet above the paddy-fields which stretch across the Kwanto 

 to the Gulf of Yeddo ! What a furious thunder-storm came on just 

 as night closed in! Then at half-past nine the moon struggled 

 out from behind the clouds, and we pushed on up over the muddy 

 roads, until at last a cold breath of night air sweeping from the 

 west began to fan our faces, and we realized that we were at the 



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