NOTES ON SCANDINAVIAN AND LAPLAND BUTTERFLIES. 225 



overpowering force so soon as they show their noses unveiled 

 outside the doors over which waves the gay blueand-yellow flag 

 of the Fatherhmd. 



Of the Lapp mosquito there is nothing good to be said, and 

 woe to the Briton who comes unprovided with a reguhir veil, and 

 enough fine muslin at least to fill the windows of his sleeping- 

 room during the brilliant sunshiny nights. I found nothing 

 that would keep them at bay. The first three days I was at 

 Abisko there was no ray of sunshine ; only hot cloudy weather, 

 and the mosquitoes consequently in tormenting myriads. When 

 I did start collecting again, on July 12th, I was encased in stout 

 boots, riding breeches and leather gaiters, buckskin gloves (to 

 which presently I was compelled to safety-pin my sleeves, as the 

 brutes settled savagely on my wrists), and a long veil, which 

 effectually prevented my spotting any small butterfly at a dis- 

 tance. This latter I abandoned as the sun grew hotter, for the 

 mosquitoes then descend into the grass, and are only trouble- 

 some to the face in the birch-woods, with which even in this 

 latitude the mountains are plentifully forested — not the little 

 dwarf shrubs common to less favoured regions until the arctic 

 creeping variety alone survives — but tall upstanding trees that 

 take the sense with sweet perfume suggestive of spring woods, 

 and the fair mythology which lends a charm even to the nomen- 

 clature of Scandinavian butterflies. 



The marshes that lie between the railway and the lake into 

 which the Abisko river falls with a Niagara-like torrent of cold 

 green water — at this season, at all events — appeared almost 

 entirely devoid of butterfly life. Except a single Colias nastes 

 var. werdandi, Zett., and sporadic Lyccena optilete var. cyparissus, 

 Hb. (if variety it really be), I found nothing ; only a few 

 Geometers kicked up from the ground-growth of moss, or dis- 

 turbed from the scattered birches. The best collecting-ground — 

 indeed, the only productive ground — was in a lateral valley on 

 the left bank of the river inland from the railway, and here, right 

 up to the snow-line, which was very low in this backward season, 

 I met with all the butterflies which I have to report. They are few 

 in species, but, with the exception of Argynnis freija, were indivi- 

 dually plentiful, A. thorev&r. borealis notably so, swarming in the 

 open glades of the woods which abutted on the stream; while Colias 

 var. iverdandi became commoner with each upward step, though, 

 to my surprise, it was hopelessly battered in nine individuals 

 out of ten — a fact all the more remarkable, seeing that spring 

 insects like the Argynnidi were only just emerging. Werdandi, 

 then, must be among the first arrivals ; and it was the only 

 Colias I met with in Lapland. On the high banks facing the 

 sun, and well flowered, L. icarus and L. var. cyparissus were 

 very common, though not in such numbers as the little L. var. 

 cBgidion, which has a curious habit of lying flat on a leaf or 



