224 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



rare, and chiefly to be found among the grasses. A beautiful 

 insect, with the iridescent shining glow upon its wings ; I do not 

 consider, however, the Mendel specimens as fine as those which 

 I took in 1900 near Bormio, the western extremity of its flight. 



A walk ui3on Monte Roen (6785 ft.) next day, though bringing 

 us to a respectable height, added only Lycmia optilete (1), Chryso- 

 phaiius JiippotJioe var. euryhia (males), Colias phicomone, and 

 Erehia stygne to the bag, and one very fine A. thore, which I was 

 fortunate enough to secure on the descent, among swarms of 

 A. amathusia, with L. coryclon, the commonest insect about. 

 Epinephele lycaon was also fairly common on the roadside, with 

 a complement of the usual Hesperiidae, though all sorts of Hes- 

 peria, unlike Switzerland, were notably few and far between ; 

 indeed, H. carthami and one or two H. var. alveiis represented 

 the group. 



From Mendel we drove to Madonna di Campiglio (4970 ft.) 

 on the 20th, a long hot journey enlivened by swarms of P. poda- 

 lirius, and as we began the woodland ascent from Dimaro, in- 

 numerable freshly-emerged Erehia (ethiops. Otherwise the road- 

 side proved hardly more productive than at Mendel, and the 

 same may be said for such of the nearer alps and fir-woods as 

 we investigated in the neighbourhood. Our chief object in visiting 

 Campiglio was to obtain the local variety of Erehia glacialis var. 

 alecto, which for some time, and until finally distinguished 

 by Calberla, I think, was supposed to be the E. melas of the 

 Pyrenees. The known locality is at a considerable elevation 

 around the Austrian Alpine Club shelter hut on the way to the 

 Brenta, but it probably occurs on all the mountains of this 

 particular range where conditions are favourable. I came across 

 no specimens, however, approximating to the usual alpine form 

 of Alecto, though some were certainly nearer to those taken 

 by me on the spurs of the Ortler above Trafoi four years 

 ago. We can hardly be reckoned fortunate in the choice of 

 the three days on which we climbed that stony barren path, for, 

 although we did find this characteristic butterfly, which merits a 

 distinctive varietal name quite as much as many less marked 

 departures from the type, on two occasions it poured with rain 

 soon after we were on the dehris where it occurs, and on the third 

 it clouded over almost as soon as the nets were unfurled. The diffi- 

 culty of securing specimens, however, added not a little to the ex- 

 citement of the chase, conducted on an almost perpendicular and 

 moving slope of loose stones, among the crevices of which alecto 

 disappeared like magic with the failure of the sun, and often 

 escaped from under the gauze itself. A modest series of about 

 a score, of which by no means all were perfect, rewarded three 

 days' hard work ; I should have said hard labour had I not 

 grateful recollections of the hut, in which we found a welcome 

 shelter, as well as food and bottled beer. Whilst flying, the 



