A MONTH IN SWITZERLAND AND ELSEWHERE. 313 



freshness ; they occui' in the wettest part of the marsh, and are 

 consequently extremely difficult to obtain. The insect is widely 

 different from B. pcde^, and though they may prove to be local races 

 of the same species, considering the extreme variability of B. paleti, yet 

 it is surprising that they should have been regarded as such at sight. 

 Possibly it may be because so many insects are regarded as arsilache 

 which certainly are mere forms pales, some of those of the Engadine, 

 for example, to which I shall refer more at length in writing of their 

 proper locality, where also a comparison of the two will be more in 

 place. The beautiful large lowland form of Colias palaeno,\QM.europoi)ie, 

 was also very fresh ; in fact, considering its comparatively restricted 

 numbers this year, it was probably not yet fully out, though 2 s Avere 

 far from uncommon. Its habits present a very marked contrast with 

 those of the Alpine form europomene. The latter, as all Alpine 

 lepidopterists know only too well, combine great rapidity of flight with 

 extreme shyness, and except on a dull, but warm day, are consequently 

 difficult to catch, whereas at Hinterzarten var. europo)iie sits com- 

 placently on the flowers of the scabious, only flitting gently, as a rule, 

 from one to another, and being so far from nervous that they will 

 sometimes allow themselves to be captured with the finger and thumb. 

 The Coenonymphids were much to the fore; Aphantopas hyperantus 

 was common, the small size of the specimens making one hope (at a 

 distance) that they might prove to be Coenoui/iDpha oedipus, and 

 though this hope invariably resulted in disappointment, yet C. pawphilus 

 C. tijpJton, and C. iphis were all in considerable numbers, and none of 

 the three were quite normal in appearance (if one can say that any 

 form of tijphon may be called normal at all). (J. pamphilus was 

 unusually large and rather richly coloured, C. typJion, on the other 

 hand, being mostly rather small, but fairly well spotted, one or two of 

 the eyespots usually showing on the upperside, while (.'. ipjliis, though 

 also of small size, showed only the most diminutive spots, one of the 

 ^s even corresponding with the arete form of A. hyperantus. In his 

 article on the neighbourhood of Freiburg [Ent. Bee, xxii., p. 91, etc.), 

 Mr. Warren mentions the fact that I took an example of this species 

 here in 1907, though he had never taken it himself during the years 

 he lived at Freiburg ; this latter fact seems to me remarkable, as it is 

 certainly far from scarce at the present time. The Melit^eids were 

 distinctly interesting. M. athalia presented the darkest and most 

 suffused form that I possess, except a pair from Cecina in the Bukovina, 

 sent to me by Herr Hormuzaki, though specimens from the Murgthal 

 come near them in this respect ; the undersides vary greatly in colour, 

 the light bands ranging in the ^ from silvery-white to buft'. 

 M. dictynna exhibited a glorious form, intensely dark on the upper- 

 side, the ground colour being of a rich golden-brown, though as a rule 

 one clear row of spots, and slight indications of a second, afforded the 

 only glimpses of it on the hindwing. The range of colour on the 

 underside was even greater than in M. athalia. I took also a single 

 very fresh ^ of M. parthente, slightly darker than the one I took on 

 my previous visit, which latter is hardly distinguishable from those of 

 the Rhone Valley, but I found no Melitaea this time corresponding 

 wnth my most interesting capture on July 19th, 1907. This has been 

 pronounced by every one to whom I have shown it, without disclosing 

 the locality in which it was taken, to be M. deione, and I had hoped 



