A MONTH IN SWITZERLAND AND ELSEWHERE. 265 



identified are chiefly through the help of the text ; but I am constantly 

 ■determining the unfigured species of Meyrick, Warren, Dognin, Turner, 

 and others. 



May I be permitted one paragraph more'? The illogicality of 

 making validity depend on " a figure " (in the ordinary acceptation) 

 is strikingly brought out by a glance at the genus TJialansodeK, which I 

 have recently been trying to revise. ' hwgood figure (of wing-markings, 

 etc.) would serve for quite a number of the species, and the only useful 

 requirement in the way of illustration would be enlarged drawings of 

 palpi, hindleg, frons, etc., but the salient distinctions can be best 

 brought out by a few simple words. I trust the Oxford Congress, 

 while advocating the desirability of figures (especially of structural 

 •detail), will not attempt to fetter the science with a wholly unnecessary 

 .and almost impracticable rule. 



A month in Switzerland and elsewhere. 



By GEORGE WHEELER, M.A., F.Z.S., F.E.S. 



(i.) Samoussy. — Inspired by the example of Mr. Eowland-Brown 

 and Mr. Warren, and having very little first-hand knowledge of the 

 butterflies of France, I determined to stay for a few days on my way 

 out to Switzerland (my first butterfly expedition there since it ceased 

 to be my home), at the tiny village of Samoussy, a few kilometres out 

 of Laon. Following the advice of my friends above-named, I had 

 secured rooms at the only house resembling an inn which the village 

 contains, in which, in spite of certain draAvbacks, we were comfortably 

 enough housed, and more than sufficiently fed, though the accom- 

 modation was not so enticingly cheap as I had been led to suppose. I 

 saw by Mr. Rowland-Brown's paper in the Kntonioloi/ist of November, 

 1910, that he had arrived there on June 23rd, and found himself late 

 for several species, so as I arrived ten days earlier, I hoped to be in 

 good time. I was, however, doomed to partial disappointment, for the 

 sun only appeared from time to time during the three full days of my 

 stay, and I was apparently already too late for some of the species I 

 had hoped to find, and rather early for others. Only one species, 

 Coenomjmpha arcania, could be described as abundant, but this occurred 

 everywhere in the woods ; I did not, however, come across anything 

 more than the merest trace of orange-brown in the hindwings of a 

 single $ , though Mr. Rowland-Brown speaks of them as displaying 

 a "pronounced inclination" in this direction, and M. Chas. Oberthiir 

 regards the* form as characteristic of the district. The next commonest 

 species was certainly Mditaea (licti/nna, which occurred in the woods 

 on both sides of the main road, but especially on the right. Indeed, 

 the best general locality I found at all was reached by turning to the 

 right on leaving the inn, and taking the cart track bearing to the 

 right, which forks from the main road shortly after the turn (on the 

 left) leading to the station. M. dictijiina was not only common but 

 very variable; indeed, my whole collection from man}' localities 

 scarcely exhibits a wider range of variation. (I do not however possess 

 var. vernetensis, if this really is a form of dicti/nna). The other Melitaeas 

 which I came across were : — M. atlialia, looking very like English 

 specimens, but neither fresh nor common ; J/, maturna, which 1 had 

 expected to find fresh and abundant, but of which I saw less than 



