112 THE entomologist's RECORD. 



birch ; they both yielded the dark fuscous form. {Several cases of 

 Culeuphora alticulella were gathered from rush heads ; both C. ijlanci- 

 colella and (J. caesjntitiella occur on the same ground at Richmond. 



In August LithocuUetis cDniparella haunted the trunks of abele 

 poplars at Barnes in some numbers. It is very common all over the 

 district in most years, but appears to be somewhat local generally. 

 The larva mmes m all the common kinds of poplar. From honey- 

 suckle on Putney Heath I bred Lithuculletis trifasciella in late 

 September, and was much interested to find mines on SalLv repens 

 about the same time, which I hoped would produce L. quimjueiinttella. 

 None emerged in the autumn, but two specimens of this species have 

 already been bred from these mines. At Ealing at the end of July 

 the larva of Nepticida pUujicolella was common in plum leaves. The 

 following species came into the house at Chiswick : — Two Sitotroga 

 cerealella, Tinea ijallescentella, and a dark form of (jriacilaria stiyiiia- 

 telLa. My last catch of the year was a nice specimen of Oinophila 

 v-jiavuui, on November 17th, on a window frame. 



The Rhone Valley and Italian Lakes in Spring. 



By A. S. TETLEY, M.A., F.E.S. 



1 spent a fortnight in May, 1910, and another in June 1911, in the 

 Rhone Valley and on the soutli side of the Simplon, and possibly a few 

 notes on the butterflies observed may be interesting, even for such 

 well- worked ground, as my visits were rather earlier than those of 

 most of our English butterfly hunters in Switzerland. My head- 

 quarters in 1910 were St. Maurice in the Valais and Baveno on Lake 

 Maggiore, and Bex in lyil, with a short tour to Iselle and back over the 

 Pass. We had good weather in 1910, but everything seemed back- 

 ward, and butterflies very scarce south of the Alps. Last year we 

 encountered the one bad patch of weather in the summer, and except 

 in a few places found butterflies few in number compared even with 

 the preceding year. 



In 1910, from May 15th to 29th we had only two wet days. Erebia 

 medusa was one of the few common butterflies near St. Maurice and at 

 St. Tnphon, all more or less typical. Cupido osiris [sebrus) was much 

 scarcer at the latter place than in May, 1907. In fact the only insect at 

 all common there was Anthrocera acliiUeae. A dozen Melitaea parthenif 

 were all I took, and this meant practically all I saw, as I wanted them 

 for my friends. At Martigny, on May 28th, there were a good number 

 of common butterflies, but no Melitaeas except M. cinxia. Erebia eiias 

 was under the clitis, the only other noteworthy captures being single 

 specimens of JUxmansiim iinieiiiosijni: and Eieiia napi var. bryoniac. 



We were at Baveno from May 17th to 22nd. The woods and 

 meadows on the slopes of Monte Matterone were full of spring flowers, 

 but almost devoid of insect life. We were told that the cold weather had 

 come to an end only a day or two before we arrived. It was dishearten- 

 in" to traverse the most attractive localities and see nothing but odd 

 specimens of llesjieria iiialvae, Uavtearis {Neiiie(jbias)liicina, (oenonyinpka 

 lianijiliUKs and the like. On May 19th and 21st we crossed the lake to 

 Laveno and found butterflies commoner than at Baveno. The most 

 noteworthy were Miiitaea phoebe and Scdlitantidcs orion. Of the 

 former 1 took nine males. They were a much duller insect than the 



