THE ENTOMOLOGIST 



Vol. XLV.] NOVEMBBE. 1912. [No. 594 



THE LEPIDOPTERA OF THE NORWEGIAN PROVINCES 

 OF ODALEN AND FINMARK. 



By W. G. Sheldon, F.E.S. 

 (Plates XI.-XIV.) 



The expedition which I made into Scandinavia in 1911 (see 

 * Entomologist,' vol. xliv. p. 357) did not enable me to observe 

 certain species of Diurni which then evaded my search ; these 

 included Colias hecla, Erebia disa, Bi^enthis polaris, B. chariclea, 

 MeliUea iduna, and Latiorina orbitulus var. aquilo. The last 

 four of these, so far as I am aware, have never been seen alive by 

 my fellow-countrymen, whilst the only British record of Erebia 

 disa I can find, is that Dr. Chapman took a few worn examples 

 at Bossekop in 1896, and it was to get acquaintance with some 

 at least of these species that I was, in part at any rate, induced 

 to make another journey to the far north this year. I thought 

 also, having worked out something of the life-history of Colias 

 nastes, var. toerdandi (see 'Entomologist,' vol. xlv. p. 122), I 

 would like to try if I could not do something with that of the 

 other purely Arctic species of this genus, C, hecla. 



Of course there are many reasons why an expedition to Arctic 

 Norway, to which district I decided this year to extend my 

 operations, is one that has charms, apart from the Lepidoptera. 

 The wonderful experience, perhaps unique throughout the world, 

 of sailing for five days and nights, from Stavanger to the North 

 Cape, through channels and fjords, passing thousands of islands, 

 often approaching within a few feet of the precipitous shores 

 towering many hundreds of feet above, the view continually 

 changing the whole time ; the beauty of the scenery, the great 

 wealth of life continuously around one — birds, seals, and ceta- 

 ceans — the bracing air, the perpetual daylight, and the charming 

 Norwegian people, so honest, kindly, and obliging ; all tend to 

 impel one who has once been there to pay another visit. 



I crossed over from Hull to Christiania on June 1st in the 

 good ship 'Eskimo,' and, wishing to see something of certain 

 southern Norwegian Lepidoptera, spent a few days in the 

 neighbourhood of the well-known — to Lepidopterists — bog of 



ENTOM. — NOVEMBER, 1912. 2 B 



