108 THE entomologist's record. 



summit of the Pass, and, by taking the short cuts, one expected to get 

 at least representatives of most of the alpine species on the slopes. 

 Erebia (/orcfe an|d Anthrocera e.nilans soon appeared, and a little later 

 Erebia lappona, but they were few in number, and the Initterflies quite 

 beyond cabinet condition. C'olias phicomone occasionally flew across 

 the slopes, and, wherever a marshy flat appeared, there Brenthi^i pales 

 flew freely, but, with the exception of swarms of the little black 

 Pyralid, Titanio phripiialis, there appeared to be nothing, and at last we 

 reached the first lakes that meet us in this direction when ascending 

 the path. Large patches of snow lay by the roadside, and the hollows 

 were still here and there full of it, and, as the sun shone brilliantly on 

 the snow, lakes, and rocks, whilst the running water sparkled like 

 diamonds wherever the streamlets fell down the mountains, the 

 immediate surroundings looked exceedingly beautiful. We walked on 

 to the inn at the top of the Pass, and then beyond, round and among 

 the lakes for a mile or so, over the snow that still here and there filled 

 up the hollows in the road, but there appeared to be no butterflies. 

 On the mountains above, the heights are covered with military forts, 

 and the rocks are bare and bleak ; the mountains shut in the summit 

 of the Pass, and there is no mighty vista extending beyond in any 

 direction. One is so high that the summits of the mountains look 

 mere hills, which one could climb in a comparatively short time, and 

 one wonders yet what entomological treasures the hollows above these 

 beautiful alj)ine lakes hold. Some day they will perhaps give up their 

 treasures, but it was not to us, and we have returned home almost 

 entomologically empty. But the day remains — a day of perfect 

 loveliness, amid alpine scenery of almost barren grandeur, softened by 

 the forests of the lower slopes and the lovely blue of the summit lakes — 

 a day for the memory, to be stored with others, so like, yet so difi'erent. 



Notes on the Life= Histories of two supposed Ants'=nest Beetles 



(icith plate). 

 By H. St. J. K. DONISTHOEPE, F.Z.S., F.E.S. 

 LabidofitoHiis tridentata, L., has been recorded from ants' nests (see 

 Fowler, Col. Brit, hies, vol. iv., p. 285, "sometimes found about ants' 

 nests," etc.), and, as its near ally, L'li/tlna quadrijiunctata, passes its 

 ■early life in the nests of Eormica riifa, it might also be supposed to 

 have some connection with ants. I reared larvae for several years 

 running, although I was unable to breed the beetle right from the egg, 

 the larvae always dying in the winter. I found, however, that the 

 larvae would never live in, or enter, my observation-nests, and I could 

 never find a trace of either larvae, pupa? or perfect insects in ants' nests 

 at Pamber Forest, where the beetle was abundant. I, therefore, think 

 it has nothing to do with ants. The perfect insects fly about young 

 birch-trees and eat the young leaves, and are most abundant about the 

 end of May. I kept numbers in captivity, and obtained many 

 •eggs. On ]\Iay 31st, 1903, I observed the process of oviposition in 

 nature. These eggs hatched about July 7th. The ? lays bunches of 

 5 to 25 eggs; she does not drop them, as the ? of L'bjthra does, 

 but fastens them to a birch -leaf ; all the eggs are fastened together, 

 and to the leaf, with long thin threads of excrement, and the eggs 

 themselves are covered with excrement, which the $ rolls round them 



