1908.] 245 



always has a special attraction to me, its under-side is so soft and 

 beautiful. This short list completes the " blues," but it was evidently 

 too late for the majority of butterflies. 



I took a few species of Heterocera of more or less interest, such 

 as Cymatophora duplaris, Onophos ccelibaria v. spurcarin, Ortholitha 

 limitata and bipunctaria . Lithosia deplana and lurideola were boxed, 

 whilst in the meadows by the river, Zygcena lonicerce and its v. major 

 were not uncommon, transalpine* also occurred in very nice condition, 

 faiista was freshly on the wing, whilst carniolica v. hedysari was com- 

 mon, but had evidently been out some time. The more I see of this 

 genus the more I feel that the male copulates more than once, and 1 

 am inclined to believe that the female does so as well, for in the case 

 of hedysari I took a very worn female in copula with a well worn 

 male ; in another case I too k a quite fresh female copulated with a 

 male with scarcely any scales. I have found this also to be the case 

 in the Aosta Valley ; well do I remember a meadow covered with 

 scabious flowers, every head seemed to be tenanted with one or more 

 Zyqcenas ; again I noticed that the females require courting, and they 

 can without difficulty prevent copulation by raising the abdomen, and 

 though the male will crawl all over its would-be spouse yet the eleva- 

 tion of the terminal segments of the abdomen was quite effective, and 

 the males each time desisted in the end. Now, it is inconceivable 

 that the old female I found copulated had not done so before, the 

 insects were too plentiful ; my assumption, therefore, is that in the 

 first instance the copulation had not been of long enough duration, 

 and therefore a second act impelled by instinct became necessary. I 

 have never found any insect so insistive as the one under consideration 

 {hedysari) ; I tried to separate two pairs, but come apart they would 

 not, T pulled them so far that the males' clasps were extruded to their 

 farthest point, and both the terminal segments were stretched so far 

 that my tenderer feelings prevailed, seeing that they would evidently 

 prefer death together rather than be separated ; this therefore took 

 place, and I now have the two males with their genitalia fully exposed, 

 for I did not part them till I came home, when having relaxed them 

 I carefully drew them apart, but I had to ease each side of the clasps 

 before the desired end was accomplished. 



Among the Orambidce I took O. speculalis, pyramidellus and mar- 

 garitellus, so that, taking into consideration the fact that part of my 

 time was occupied with photography I suppose I must not complain 

 at my three days' sojourn at this pleasant Alpine watering place. 



19, Clarendon Road, 



Edgbaston, Birmingham : 

 August, 1908. 



