58 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



To resume my account of the 14th of July — the lower slopes 

 yielded little beyond some bright fine E. tyndarus of the eyed- 

 form, for which it appears we must now revert to the Von 

 Hochenwarth's prior name (1785) oi cassioides (= dromus, H.-S.) : 

 the females were few and far between ; nor was there any pro- 

 fusion of E. epiphron var. pyrenaica, H.-S. — that is to say, 

 the casaiope form with broad, bright, macular chestnut bands 

 and large spots — though I quite agree with Mr. H. J. Elwes 

 (Trans. Ent. Soc. 1898, p. 174) that these characteristics are 

 themselves inconstant, and that the form hardly deserves a 

 varietal name, even in these days when it is the fashion to over- 

 load our catalogues with undistinguished Latinity. Keeping to 

 the left, and ascending what appear to be interminable grass 

 slopes, too closely cropped to sustain much lepidopterous life, at 

 a break in the monotonous verdure there is an outcrop of stone. 

 Hereabouts the hitherto ubiquitous E. stygne (Ruhl's var. pyre- 

 naica, and about as *' inconstans " as the last-mentioned 

 " variety ") left us, and our old friend E. lappona began to 

 appear — all var. sthennyo — and just before attaining the cow- 

 shelter, which is beneath a vast overhanging ledge of rock, I 

 netted an Erehia never before taken by me at Gavarnie — E. 

 manto var. ccecilia, Hb. — actually an " all black " butterfly ; and, 

 oddly enough, though I afterwards found it in another locality 

 in the Val d'Ossue away to the west, I captured no second 

 example at this spot, and conclude, therefore (it was in perfect 

 condition), that it must have been a stray. Higher again, where 

 E. gorgone swarmed in 1905, and E. lefebvrei also, single speci- 

 mens alone fell to my net. The latter butterfly, at all events, 

 was not out. Round the "bergerie" rocks also flitted a con- 

 siderable number of Parnassius mneviosyne (also new to me at 

 Gavarnie), and though no undamaged examples were taken on 

 this expedition, quite ten days later I picked up a decent male 

 or two among the predominating ragged rascals. 



Here also, flying at dizzy speed, were the males of Hepialus 

 alticola, Obthr., mentioned by me in my paper on Eaux-Bonnes, 

 and Mr. Warren, when we came back on the 20th, discovered a 

 specimen of the extraordinary apterous female, to which the 

 males were assembling, and this I had the pleasure of handing 

 over to M. Charles Oberthlir, whose collectors were on the 

 look-out for alticola, but apparently had not struck our excellent 

 locality. 



.During the whole day we saw few other, even of the com- 

 monest, Alpine butterflies, and it was not until the 25th that 

 E. gorgone (males) became really plentiful. The 15th was 

 devoted to the Val de Poueyespee, the lateral valley leading to 

 the Porte de Gavarnie, on the Spanish frontier, to the right of 

 the Cirque looking south. This was another of my former pet 

 hunting-grounds, and at almost the identical spot where I had 



