THREE WEEKS IN DAUPHINY. 311 



hour outside the village I saw a greyish-looking erehia tumbled over 

 and over in the dust by the sweeping wind, my hopes were raised 

 proportionately. The wind caught my hat and carried it well 

 on towards Monetier, but I had the butterfly in my net and it 

 was, as I expected, a female E. scipio, yet so much the worse for 

 the escapade that I let her go at once. Then I made a valiant 

 attempt to swarm to the little plateau whence possibly she had 

 descended, and where I spotted two or three male Erebias 

 disporting themselves. I could not get near them, so wiM were 

 they; and I never saw the species again, though three times I 

 returned under less adverse circumstances. Scipio, therefore, 

 remains on my list of desiderata, and, with all the world at war, 

 I wonder whether I shall ever supplement in my cabinet the 

 Digne examples kindly given me by M. Oberthiir with those of 

 my own capture. 



The village of Monetier lies at the south end of a bleak open 

 valley extending almost the whole way from Pont de I'Alpe — 

 looked at from above, a grey-brown wilderness of dusty fields, 

 the detritus of the Guisane, which river, it would seem, habitu- 

 ally inundates the surrounding country when the snows of Le 

 Lauteret melt. But if the main valley is unpromising from an 

 entomological point of view, the lateral valleys opening up 

 consecutively on either side, but principally on the right bank, 

 suggest fat bags for those who do not mind a certain amount of 

 rough-and-tumble walking en route, made more laborious this 

 season by the frequent rain rupture of the pathways. The 

 tempestuous weather had also left its mark on the butterflies 

 hereabouts. At all events, species reported as common by Mr. 

 Tetley were hardly to be seen at all ; and even where the moun- 

 tain pastures were smiling with flowers and lush-green grass, 

 I did not find that abundance of common things which is a 

 feature of most Alpine pleasaunces. The four days of my col- 

 lecting were divided between the hills and mountains on either 

 side of Monetier. Those to the east were most productive at 

 the lower levels ; but very little was to be seen above the tree- 

 line, and it was in the openings of the fir woods here that I first 

 found Anthrocerids really plentiful, A. achillecs sharing claim 

 with A. transalpina and A. lonicercs to be commonest of their 

 genus. The A. carniolica from this locality are characteristic — 

 small in size, the spots without marginal decoration, and the 

 colour rather pale crimson. I boxed no more than a single 

 specimen of A.fausta this year, on the Lauteret road. 



Where the Burnets were most plentiful they shared the 

 flower heads of scabious and yellow hawkweeds with clouds of 

 Adopcea lineola, P. corijdon, P. hylas, and occasional P. thersites. 

 Brenthis ino was also in great force, with a small race of 

 M". phcehe. Papilio machaon and some Aporia cratcegi, P. apollo, 

 and C. phicomone were fairly well represented. The Erebias 



