A SWISS ELDORADO. 243- 



reached home that I noticed that I had taken a form new to me ; I 

 must say, to excuse my blindness, that I have never taken a very long 

 series of the type. This summer, thanks to the perpetual rains all over 

 the country, blues have been extremely scarce, and this particular 

 insect has suffered so greatly, that though Mr. and Mrs. Page and my- 

 self searched for it most conscientiously, I only took a single specimen^ 

 a female. I have thus but a tiny series of 31 ab. (njiiilonia in all, but 

 they make up for their want of numbers by being most beautiful and 

 of a very special form. The upperside of the forewings in both sexes 

 has generally from two to six more or less clearly marked white spots, 

 forming an antemarginal band, and the triangular apical spots are very 

 black and bordered with white. The undersides of all four wings are, 

 as compared with those of L. orbitulns, extremely pale, paler than in 

 A. p/wretes ; the black pupils in the white patches of the upper sides 

 are much reduced in size and are frequently missing. In the lower 

 wings the pale fawn ground colour reaches only about half way across 

 the wing, being bordered broadly with snowy white ; the black spots on 

 the hindwings are either wanting altogether or are represented by one, 

 two or (in a single case) three tiny blark dots on the upper margin 

 near the costa ; the peacock feathering is often present, and stands out 

 in strong contrast in the middle of the snowy border, and is pushed 

 further back from the fringe than in L. orbitulns. This butterfly is 

 rather smaller than L. orbitidi(ft, and the cut of the forewing is less 

 rounded. Several of the females have the slaty-blue of the male reach- 

 ing to the marginal border of the wing. Lowe's ab. aqttiloiiia (if, as I 

 presume, this is Lowe's insect), is certainly a local race on the Glar- 

 nisch, for I have not seen a single insect approaching the type. Is it 

 something more than a variety ? That is what time alone can decide ; 

 I intend to sacrifice a few species to the microscope this winter and 

 will, if no kind reader take the job off my hands, do my best to secure 

 the egg and raise the larva, though, as that of L. orbitulna is only known 

 up to date as a full-grown refugee under the stones, comparison will 

 be impossible till there be something to compare it with. 



Among the A. jilteretes taken by me on these slopes are a few that I 

 have described in the " Bulletin de la Soc. Lep. Geneve " as ab. pitpil- 

 lata : these have dark spots in all the white patches of the underwing 

 except in the discoidal ; others (underfed ?) having a forewing of from 

 10mm. to 11mm. I have named ab. minor. Not uncommon among the 

 females is Wheeler's ab. caer nlen-punctata . 



On these same slopes Melitaea ci/nthia is usually common enough, 

 and a small percentage of the female Erebia f/lacialis are ab. alecto, 

 having the two eyespots visible on the upper and under sides. 

 Vorbrodt, in his work just published, says that ab. alecto is rare in 

 Switzerland, and has only been taken in Valais, Engadine and Tessin, 

 Of ft'. (ior<je, all three forms are found on the Glarnisch, typical E. 

 (joviie, ab. enjunis, and ab. triopes. 



It would be ridiculous to try to make out a list of all the lepidop- 

 terous insects I have taken on and around these glorious slopes ; it 

 would be very easy to make a list of those Swiss butterflies that I have 

 not found here. All those that are met with in the mountainoas dis- 

 tricts with exception made for a few strictly local forms like Erebia 

 citristi and ft', fiarofat^riafa, Plebeiiis Keplnjriis xar. bjcidas, and two more 

 generally found species, I'arciuiina optilete and Anthoc/iaris simplonia I 



