194 Journal New York Entomological Society, f"^'"'- ^^i- 



Valle de las Papas, " the valley of potatoes," on the Cordillera 

 Central of the Andes near the summit at an altitude of about 10,000 

 feet. The Rio Caqueta, one of the principal tributaries of the Upper 

 Amazon, flows through the valley. The valley spreads out as a flat 

 expanse several miles in width, the surface sparsely overgrown with 

 a tall grass suggesting prairie grass, in the wet places replaced by 

 rushes closely allied to Scirpiis; bog mosses, Sphagnum sp., occurs 

 abundantly almost everywhere except in the wooded places. At vari- 

 ous spots, especially in the neighborhood of the river, clumps of scat- 

 tered trees occur, with numerous bushes in between ; these trees 

 resemble mesquite and have comparatively little moss. It was from 

 amongst these tree clumps that most of the craneflies labelled " Valle 

 de las Papas " were taken. It is possible that some came from the 

 " cloud " or " moss " forest on the slopes above the valley, as in a few 

 places the edge of the " cloud " forest came close up to the tree clumps, 

 though in most instances it was at least one eighth of a mile away. 



The floral, avifaunal and climatic conditions of the valley are 

 almost exactly the same as those occurring above tree line in the true 

 paramo; however, it is at a much lower altitude (10,000-10,300 feet) 

 than the true paramo (12,600 feet and over) and is separated from the 

 latter by a cloud forest belt of varying width. Ecologically the flora 

 of the paramo is a psychrophytic or cold soil formation ;^ it is de- 

 scribed as being a subglacial fell field " supporting a typical, open 

 vegetation, the individuals of which are scattered in small tufts, and 

 display growth-form exactly corresponding to those in northern fell- 

 fields ; cushion-like growth is perhaps more common. . . . Despite 

 great humidity, frequent rain and mist, which the sun may suddenly 

 dissipate, the vegetation is xerophytic, as Gobel's descriptions demon- 

 strate ; many plants occur with pinoid, cupressoid, juncoid or woolly- 

 haired leaves." Besides a large number of Holarctic genera of plants, 

 there are many genera peculiar to the region ; the most notable single 

 plant of the paramo is probably the "great irailejon,'' Espcletia grandi- 

 flora Humb. et Bonpl., a remarkable Composite plant growing 6 to 8 

 feet in height; a good figure of Espclctia is shown in Engler und 

 PrantF and in Plate i of this article. 



The ■' cloud " forest or " moss " forest which surrounds the valley 



1 Eug. Warming, GEcology of Plants, Sec. 9, pp. 258-259, 1909. 



2 Die Nattirlichen Pflanzenfamilien, Vol. 4, Ft. 4, p. 217, Fig. 109. 



