THE LEPIDOPTERA OF THE GRISONS. 155 



Barentrett Gorge was undertaken. It proved a long dusty walk, and 

 the attempts to discover by side routes, etc., places particularly suitable 

 for collecting, added to the length of the journey but little to the bag, 

 coupled with which most of the species met with appeared to be largely 

 over ; the fields were all mown bare and the crops carried, so that one 

 suspected that the Landwasser Valley would have proved more pro- 

 ductive a little earlier in the season. This was particularly the case 

 near Frauenkirch, where, on a flowery slope among hundreds of Pieris 

 brassicae, P. rapae, worn Adopaea lineola, Anthrocera achilleae, A. tran- 

 salpina and Clirusophanua hippothoe, etc., one observed very few species 

 in good condition, of which Argynnis niobe, A. aglaia, Iswria lathonia, 

 Alicia astrarche, Heodes virijaureae, Ai/riades coridon, and two quite 

 freshly emerged Melitaea athalia,vieve perhaps the chief. One delightful 

 little corner remains an exception to the rule. This was near 

 Spinabad, where an open space, thinly covered with large trees and 

 carpeted with flowers, came down to the roadside. Here many common 

 species were in profusion, Aigj/miis aglaia and A. niobe, in dozens, the 



$ s of the latter exceptionally dark on the upperside ; Brenthis ino and 

 B. amathidiia also had been abundant, but were altogether passe, but 

 Erebia etiryalewas in first-class condition, whilst Issoria latJiouia swung 

 from the flowers, ready to dart off like lightning, however, if disturbed, 

 in all the beauty of fresh emergence from chrysalis ; an occasional 

 Colias jdiicomone reached here, having been evidently attracted by the 

 flowers below its usual level, whilst Aporia crataegi 2 s with almost 

 transparent forewings still sought a place in which to lay what few 

 eggs remained to be deposited. Low down on the flowers many of 

 the usual species were common, and Aricia astrarche, Cyaniris 

 seiiiiaryiis, Heodes viryaureae, Ayriades coridon, of which the J s appear 

 to be exceptionally dark, both on the upper- and underside, one or two 



$ Chrysophanuskipjiothoe (most of the examples of this species in shreds), 

 Hesperia alveits, Urbicola comma, Adopaea lineola, and Coenonympha 

 satyrion, made up the greater part of the Rhopalocerous bag. There were 

 a few other interesting species noted, of which the chief were : — 

 Larentia caesiata on the tree-trunks, Dasydia obfuscata frequently dis- 

 turbed here, and in suitable spots all the way down the valley, Crambus 

 dumetellus, and an Anthrocera, apparentl}' ochsenheinieri, but which I 

 cannot name with any real certainty. Lower down the valley, towards 

 the Schmelzboden Hofl'nungsau, the same species largely occurred, but 

 nothing really worth noting, except, perhaps, a specimen or two of 

 Cyaniris semiaryas at a runnel by the roadside below Glads. The 

 failure of an observation on the egglaying of Aryynnis aylaia at 

 Spmabad may be worth recording if it only attracts someone else to 

 record a successful observation. As I sat in the shade of a tree at 

 lunch at a spot where A. aylaia appeared particularly abundant, a 



$ was observed in the most business-like way at what I considered 

 must be the process of egglaying. She hovered an inch or two above 

 the ground, at a spot where violets were growing, but the grass and 

 other herbage sparse, dragged herself over the violet plants, abdomen 

 downwards, and then took up a position among the drier grass, quite 

 near, but not actually among, the violet-roots, her abdomen was 

 poised, bent under, and a movement of an inch or so forward made, 

 when the operation was repeated, and this happened at least four or 

 five times, until, craning forward to within a few inches of her, I 



