28 THE entojiulogist's RECORI). 



interest. For instance, our ubiquitous friend Ai/laia urticac — usually 

 a finer brighter-coloured insect in the higher alps than we know it at 

 home away from the Scotch moors — I have found, sharing with 

 CoUasphicoiiionc, the last patch of herbage on the snow line at 10,000 ft., 

 while other insects associated in the insular mind with low levels 

 and sunny English meadows, have a strange way of turning up at 

 5-6,000 ft. — Eni/onia poh/rJdoros, for instance, at Evolena ; Miianar;/ia 

 (jalaUa and Aporia rrataciii. As for that much abused person, the 

 mere collector, with whom {pace our editor) I must class myself, 

 Switzerland is a perfect paradise for him, and the best of it is that 

 both he and his more scientific brethren may elongate their series 

 indefinitely without fear of reproach, since, so far as mountain genera 

 are concerned, the supply is practically limitless. The great difficulty, 

 however, for the peripatetic collector is the setting and storage of his 

 captures. If he is moving about off the beaten track, store-boxes, 

 drying-cases, and the like, are troublesome impedimenta, and for 

 shaking the pins out of cork recommend me to the baggage mule. He 

 must, I take it, therefore, fall back on papers for his specimens, and 

 my experience in this respect is, that insects relegated to envelopes 

 are very nearly always more or less damaged — which, however, may 

 be due to native clumsiness. This year I took my boards along 

 with me, and had good sized store boxes posted from England in 

 ample time — mountain posts are erratic — and as you can post any- 

 thing in Switzerland for next to nothing to every place which boasts 

 a post-office — that is to say, every place which owns an hotel of some 

 sort, I believe it is better to proceed in this way than to trust to the 

 lesser inconvenience of folding butterflies, to be reset at home, if any- 

 thing is left of them. But on this point I would ask for " more 

 light," and no doubt the readers of the Kntomoloiiisfft IlecunJ will be 

 able to supply it. A good field kit for the campaign is a desideratum. 

 [We should be glad of suggestions on these points. — Ed.] , 



A critical resume of the arguments for and against Tephrosia 



bistortata (crepuscularia) and Teplirosia crepuscularia (biundularia) 



being considered distinct species. 



By J. W. TUTT, F.E.S. 

 (Continued from p. 9). 



I have a letter before me from a well-known entomologist, in 

 which the two following statements occur : " Ido not think T. cr('j}iis- 

 cidaria (the early species) occurs in Scotland," and, a few lines lower 

 down: — " I have no Scotch specimens of those s])ecies [T. ciYjiusiulaiia 

 and T. hiundidan'a)." Now, this is the sort of logic one is always 

 finding in the quasi-scienco of amateur entomologists in this country. 

 This gentleman is not alone in his opinion, but for all that, it is an 

 erroneous one. 



We read [Ivnt., xix.,p. 161) the following note by Mr. Doubleday: — 

 "Oct. 20th, 1861. The dark Tqdtrosia is far more difficult to .- 



procure than the pale one 1 have never seen it from the jj 



North of England, but it is plentiful in Scotland," and, again, under jj 

 date of Feb. 5tli, 186B, he again observes : — " About Warrington, 

 biundularia occurs ; but they get a dark smoky variety, totally unlike 



