EREBIA I. 



lives, and the frosty nights even during the short period of its alpine summer, it 

 would require three seasons for the larva from egg to reach imago, the first win- 

 ter being spent by the larva in its first stage, the second either when mature or 

 in pupa. He replies: "As to the three year theory, I do not think it is so at 

 all. You have no idea of the forcing and invigorating influence of the air, and 

 the effect on everything that has life, both animal and vegetable. You may 

 leave the barren-looking cold hills for a week and return to find them carpeted 

 with flowers, in many cases actually pushing through the snow. Where the sun 

 catches, in early spring, the snow soon melts, and the hibernating larvae feed and 

 grow rapidly. I can only form my ideas from hibernating Arctian (Heterocera) 

 larvte ; these hibernate when very small indeed, come out very early, wdll freeze 

 and thaw as the cold or heat predominates, yet keep growing all the time. I 

 have no reason to think the diurnals do very differently. I think there is plenty 

 of time for Erebias to feed up and be out on the wing by the middle of June. 

 The mountain larva? are all very partial to basking on the stones in the sunshine, 

 feeding little till the afternoon and evening, but then they feed voraciously. 

 The temperature gets down to 30° Fahr., or lower, every night during the sum- 

 mer months ; a thin ice frequently forms on the small lakes in July even. Yet I 

 believe the grass feeders do not get into a torjjid state after vegetation once 

 starts, for the soil and stones retain heat where the sun has struck for any length 

 of time. Yet the air is so cold that moths do not fly by night at all, the Noctuids 

 and Bombyces, at these elevations, being day-fliers." 



