A NOTE ON SCOLITANTIDES ORION, ETC. 201 



there on June 10th, 1914. The presence of these species interested 

 me as I was not certain whether they had been taken in this locality 

 before. I thought it possible that my late uncle, Mr. A. J. Pison, had 

 introduced them by bringing larv!T3 to Charpigny with their foodplants, 

 Sedioii tele)thi)ini and Sediun albtnii, perhaps from the Southern Alps. 

 However, Mr. Wheeler says (/» litf.) : " I am not aware that your uncle 

 deliberately brought S. oriim larvae to Charpigny, but he may very 

 possibly have brought ova in plants of Sedtiiii, either from Branson or, 

 more probably, from south of the Alps .... still I had long 

 entomological conversations with him the year before he died, and he 

 did not mention it. 



"On the other hand, /'. cniiandiiH has become common in the 

 Charpigny marshes, and L. eiipliemn.s and L. areas near the Rhone at 

 Aigle, neither species having been found there at all, till some eight 

 or ten years back. One may say this with certainty, since they were 

 all localities that your uncle had hunted regularly for many years. 

 Charpigny is quite ideal for S. orion, and it might get there from 

 Branson, quite as easily as P. ainandus from Vernayaz." 



(I should add that I took /'. aniandus in the Charpigny marshes 

 in June, 1914. It occurred, too, singly at Charpigny, on the road 

 leading to the stables, and between St. Triphon Station and Charpigny.) 



Mr. Reginald Temperley, in a later letter, writes : " The P. ap(dlo 

 and .S". u}iun found at Charpigny .... were intentionalhj intro- 

 duced by your late uncle. The caterpillars were supplied by someone 

 whose name I have forgotten 



" As to P. aiiiandiis, L. e}(phc)iiiiti, and L. aica>i having put in an ap- 

 pearance in the localities you mention within the last ten years, this 

 is a matter of opinion only, with nothing to support it apparently, 

 beyond the fact that your late uncle had never found them there. I 

 believe that Mr. Fison's not having reported any of these three species 

 was because he had not looked well enough at the right time. 

 Neither had he ever found C. tijdion, observed for the first time in 

 1905 by myself, and reported to him, and whicb species swarms in 

 the valley on the skating-ground and upwards for quite one mile, 

 and probably in places all the way to St. Triphon quarries, as I took ar 

 few there last June 



" Mr. Wheeler's views may be correct about /'. ainundus getting 

 from Vernayaz. From whence comes ( '. tiphon / — Loeche? — and 

 there is also L. areas and L. eujdiennis to account for. Arras occurs 

 on the hills behind Clarens. Personally, I am of opinion that all 

 these four species have been there for quite a long time. I could 

 mention another fly that the late Mr. Fison had not seen in these parts 

 which exists there." 



Finally, Mr. Wheeler writes: "With regard to P. ainandus, I can 

 state quite definitely that it is not a matter of unsupported opinion. 

 It occurs on ground that both your uncle and I, together and apart, 

 had regularly hunted for many years. The first year it vvas found 

 there very few specimens were seen ; the next year they were still in 

 small numbers, but much less scarce, and from that time onwards they 

 have been quite common. A single female having been let out, or 

 blown, or flown there would be sufficient to account for its appearance 

 in so suitable a place. As far as it is ever possible to be absolutely 

 certain of any negative fact, I do not think that the previous absence 



