A SWISS ELDORADO. 



241 



A new Palaearctic species of Xenopsylla (with plate). 



By the Hon. N. CHARLES ROTHSCHILD, M.A. 



Among some Siphonaptem lately received from Asiatic Russia there 

 are two <? <? of a species of Xenapsi/lla which are remarkable for the 

 development of the posterior abdominal segments and the bristles of 

 the legs, particularly on the hind tarsus. 



Xenupsylla Jiirtipes, spec. nov. (PI. xx., figs. 1-2.) J • The species 

 is nearest to A', (/erbilli, Wagn. (1903). The episternum of the meta- 

 thorax is separated from the sternum, and the hind femur has no sub- 

 basal ventral tooth, in which characteristics A', hirtipes agrees with X. 

 gerhilli, X. mycerini, X. rainesis and some other Xenopsylla [cf. Para- 

 sitology, i., p. 58 (1908)] . In both A'. yerhiUi and A', hirtipes, the 

 bristles placed at the apices of the tibia and first and second tarsal 

 segments of the hind leg are very long, but, in addition, in A', hirtipes 

 the bristles situated at the posterior edge of the first hind tarsal seg- 

 ment are also very long and strong, as shown in fig. 1, this not being 

 the case in any other known species of Xenopsylla. Further, the 

 apical margin of the seventh abdominal tergite is dorsally strongly 

 produced in A', hirtipes (fig. 2, vii. t.), and the eighth sternite (viii. st.) 

 bears only one ventral bristle on each side in A', hirtipes, while it has 

 three in A', gerbilli. The clasping organs agree more closely with those 

 of A', (jerbilli than with those of any other species, but are nevertheless 

 easily distinguished by the upper lobe p\ being broader and bearing a 

 large number of bristles. Two S <? from near Djarkent, Semitchenskoi, 

 E. Turkistan, October 5th, 1912, off Allactaga elater, and November 

 25th, 1912, off Meriones taniariciniis. 



A Swiss Eldorado. 



By P. A. H. MUSCHAMP, B.A., F.E.S. 

 It may seem injudicious to advertise Eldorado when one has found 

 it, and no doubt it would be so were it not that nature has kindly taken 

 matters into her own hands and put about fifty per cent, of this happy 

 hunting ground well out of the reach of any but the rash fool, who is 

 willing to risk his life in order to bring home with him a huge bunch 

 of edelweiss, rather than rest content with a modest nosegay of these 

 enticing flowers. Let who will come, many terraces will ever remain 

 where the winged beauties may mate unmolested by the man with the 

 net, and where their progeny may ever feed unobserved of all save the 

 Satanic black salamander and the predacious Hymenoptera. Here 

 indeed is a "campus et apricis statio gratissima papilionibns." Since 

 1901 I have spent every summer holiday Avandering about over hill 

 and dale in every canton of Switzerland and have never found its 

 equal. In order to get to this Eldorado you need but to beg the 

 beneficent distributor of holiday joys to accord you sundry slips of 

 paper giving you the right to travel by the way of Zurich to the quaint 

 little town of Glarus, put your traps and yourself into a carriage 

 belonging to the little hotel at Klonthal and have yourself conveyed 

 thither, unless you prefer to economise, in which case you make use of 

 shanks his mare and send up your traps by themselves. This little 

 hotel is situated on a lakelet that is now double the size it was five 

 October 15th, 1913. 



