THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 237 



more frequent!}' an insect, invariably either Dipterous or 

 Iclineunionideoiis. I cannot account for the himps of peat; 

 but I inianine (hat the insects settliui^' on the snow, became 

 torpid from its low teiupcratuve, and sank gradually (or per- 

 haps rapidly) into it, the hole being caused by the nielling of 

 the snow by the radiation of heat from the insect. l"he solar 

 rays on mountain summits are asserted to be warmer than 

 those falling on the plains, but there is no doubt that the ra- 

 diation from solid bodies at great elevations is very marked. 

 I took Cryjjlus tarsoleucus apparently not long alighted, and 

 still feebly moving a wing or a leg. Perhaps it is only in the 

 finest weather that insects would take so lofty a flight ; how- 

 ever, a little lower down, Bombus montanus was not inicom- 

 mon, enjoying itself amongst the flowers of" a Linaria, but 

 surrounded on all sides by patches of snow. Nearly up to 

 the same point I frequently passed a little black moth, Pso- 

 dos trepidaria, taking its short trembling flight. Higher 

 than either of these, and among some short grass in the 

 middle of the snow, I foimd a Byrrhus. These were the last 

 evidences of animal life observed. But as flowering plants 

 extend to upwards of 10,000 or even 11,000 feet, it would be 

 interesting to learn if insect-life in any form co-exists with 

 them. A mammal, Arvicola nivalis, is foiuid, 1 believe, at 

 the highest point of phanerogamic vegetation." 



In reply to enquiries, Mr. Pascoe added that the insects in 

 the snow were all dark in colour, that the holes were on the 

 slojie of the mountain on which the sun was shining directly, 

 and that they were truly cylindrical, not hemispherical, or 

 narrowed at the bottom. Ills explanation of the phenome- 

 non did not meet with general acceptance ; it was objected 

 that radiation was scarcely likely to produce a cylindrical 

 excavation ; and Mr. Wallace doubted whether an insect of 

 so small bulk and mass, and which could only give off by 

 radiation the heat which it had first absorbed, was capable, 

 even though of a dark colour, of absorbing sufficient to pro- 

 duce the considerable melting of the snow around it which 

 Mr. Pascoe had described. 



May 1, 1865. — Mr. S. Stevens produced a Cassida, which 

 he had hoped to have exhibited alive ; it had been found 

 some days previously in London, near a newly-opened case 



