THE LEPIDOPTKKA OF THE GEISONS THE FLUELA PASS. 159 



clouds, which now and again drifted down to us, so that a start down 

 the valley, rather than up the mountains, seemed advisable. The air 

 was keen and chill, and, as we walked along the upper part of the path, 

 the ground, pictured under a hot sun as alive with the high alpine 

 Erebias, disclosed not a wing, and it was not until the tree limit was 

 reached that the sun seemed to have warmed the earth. Then 

 for about half-an-hour we walked through the scant, sun-lit pines, 

 and picked up unconsidered trifles by the way — trifles that soon 

 filled our zinc-box, and made us wish that the sun were at least 

 equally warm 1000 feet higher, although we noted now with 

 chagrin that the upper part of the valley was again in cloud. Guessing 

 what might happen, we walked on, getting as low down the valley as 

 possible. Swarms of Argynnh niobe and A. aglaia were noted, a still 

 greater abundance of Erehiagoante, E.tyndanis, and Melainpicifi ))ielaiii]ius, 

 dark I'ararge iiiaera, and small but fine BrenthU cuuathusia, swift- 

 winged L'olias pJiicoDione, hundreds of Heodes virgaitreae, the J s much 

 brighter in the lower part than those taken higher up the valley, the 

 3 s occasionally with clearly-marked discoidal lunule on the forewing; 

 darting tiesperia alvtus and Urhicola covima, Coenongwpha satyrion, 

 worn Melitaea dictynna, and hardly more satisfactory M. athalia, a 

 single Avorn example each of Cyaniris nemiargus, Albulina pheretes, and 

 Melawpias epiphron, whilst fluttering across the path were many Fidonia 

 pinetaria, and Anthrocera transalpina came up to sun on the flowers ; 

 the rapidity of pairing of this last-named species is very remarkable ; as 

 I stood for a moment speculating whether I would box a fine, apparently 

 newly-emerged 2 , a J appeared on the scene, and before even a 

 thought could pass to prevent it, the insects were coupled, the <? still 

 and lymg lengthwise on the grass-culm below the 2 without a move 

 or quiver of its body. Aricia astrarche came to the damp roads, but 

 this was the only "blue" seen there. An occasional dash up the bank 

 resulted in MerrifiehUa tridactyla (tetrodactyla), Adkinia graphodactyla, 

 and Eubolia wensuraria being added to the bag, and then a cold chill 

 swept down the valley as the sun disappeared and the first rain began 

 to fall. Yonder, only a mile or so away it seemed, the sun still 

 shone, but they were the mountains on the other side of the main valley 

 of the Lower Engadine, and the spots we could see poesibly two days' 

 journey distant. There was nothing else to be done, and we turned 

 roimd and walked back, at first slowly, then more quickly, until at 

 last we took shelter in one of the avalanche galleries, from the pitiless 

 rain. Here we disturbed numbers of Larentia aptata, L. verberata, L. 

 caesiata, Lhisydia obfuscata, and a large Noctuid whose name escapes 

 us, bat the weather only got more and more infernally hopeless. We 

 looked back, the sun still shone on those mountains "just across the 

 road," but our traps were upwards, and we faced it and walked on — 

 on and on up the storm-swept path, without the slightest trace of 

 shelter which, indeed, now we did not want, for we were too wet to 

 dare stay anywhere in such wet clothes, and so on, whilst the draggled 

 diligences with their load of tourists from Nauders, St. Moritz and 

 Pontresina, via Sus, clinched up slowly behind us ; we took the short 

 cuts and reached the summit well ahead, and had washed and changed 

 our soaked clothes by the time lunch was served, and the visitors went, 

 and we remained. Never before did we feel so much the nuisance of 

 a restless temperament, nothing to do, nowhere to do it, the clouds 



