\()TF,S ON A TIJIP TO THE SIKKHA ])K LA DEMANUA AND MONCAYO. 87 



anywhere near the mountain. It was matter of much regret that we 

 should be so near these tempting summits and yet find it practically 

 impossible to visit them. 



Our hunting-grounds were on the lower slopes and broken ground 

 at the foot of the hills on the north, along the top of these, and towards 

 the higher points of the Sierra de la Demanda, and on some rather 

 bare hills opposite. A little valley parallel to the main one, and to 

 the south of it, presented some good ground and led up to the Pinar, 

 an area of pine-wood about 1200 feet above Canales, and five or six 

 miles off. 



The lowest slopes were usually rather bare, but had, in the little 

 valleys between them, more or less blackthorn and (Teniata. Very soon 

 a scrub of small oak-bushes of the woolly-leaved species was reached, 

 and this continued more or less to a considerable elevation, in some 

 places, very low down, was a good deal of heath, but this was not 

 usually abundant till near the top of the oak-scrub. The oak-scrub 

 reached behind Canales to the top of the ridge, on the other side of 

 which was a thick beech forest. Elsewhere, where the true succession 

 could be found, the beech followed on the oak at a higher level, and 

 this happened at one higher portion of the ridge. It really also was 

 seen on the north side of the ridge, where the oak was very low down. 

 The difterence between the two sides amounted to 1000 feet or so, 

 occupied by oak on the southern aspect, being on the northern occupied 

 by beech. The difterence in climate on the two sides being thus 

 something like 1000 to 1500 feet of elevation in favour of the southern 

 aspect. 



The impression I received during the first few days at Canales, was 

 that I had got amongst precisely the same set of insects that I left on 

 the wing in the Riviera twelve weeks before. Pnli/omniatus baton, 

 Xnmiaddi ci/llarus, Si/richthm sao, Thais ruinina, < 'alias edusa, C. In/ale, 

 Kuchlo'e euphenoides, Xomiades iiielanops, Ci/aiiiris an/iolus, Brenthis 

 i'iiphros}/nt', Krehia evias (at Locarno eleven weeks before), Adscita 

 statices, Tanatira cliafritp/njllata, Fidonia atomaria, etc. The species 

 were not remarkable as occurring anywhere in the south, the curious 

 feature was their association together so long as nearly three months 

 later than they were seen in the south of France, so much further 

 north. The inland situation had perhaps as much to do with the 

 lateness at Canales, as the elevation, which, as I have said, was not 

 very great. 



On my first excursion on the slopes at Canales I met with a species 

 of Hetfrni/i/itis, which appears to be specifically distinct, being attached 

 to Genista .scor/^/^.s and having a very difterent habit in spinning its cocoon 

 from the other species. The larvae of Afjlaopc infausta were extra- 

 ordinarily abundant on bushes of blackthorn here, often stripping them 

 quite bare and apparently rendering them suitable to the attacks of a 

 large Buprestid, of the genus Ficnodis, that we often found basking 

 on the bare branches. 



The Genista sror/iias, at Canales, atibrded by beating, though beat- 

 ing so low, stift", thorny a bush was rather difficult, except when it 

 grew on a steep bank, larvne of an On/i/ia, which were at first very 

 small, but as they grew older, seemed, as in fact proved to be the case, 

 to be Onijiia aurolinihata, they were also beaten, though less freely, 

 from the oak-scrub, whence also came one larva, which was not reared, 



