320 THE entomologist's eecoed. 



have reached ahnost 7000 feet, and two or three Chnjsophanus alciphron 

 are netted in poor condition. Pohjommatus damon is still abundant, but 

 P. orbitulus becomes our particular quarry, both sexes being repeatedly- 

 netted, whilst unexpectedly a few very ordinary P. icarus are captured. 

 There is no diminution in the large numbers of insects as we climb the 

 next two or three hundred feet, and Syrichthus alveus, Thjmelicus lineola, 

 and PampMla comma repeatedly buzz at the flowers and tempt capture. 

 Melitaea partJienie soon becomes frequent, and at last Posodos trepidaria 

 and Herci/na phri/f/ialis suggest that a falling off may be expected, and 

 so it happens. As we leave the hot sunny slope up which we have 

 climbed, and turn along the topmost ridge, although several of the 

 species cross our path they are not in such great numbers as hitherto, 

 and we work slowly along, picking here and there such specimens as 

 we want, but climbing rapidly all the time. Then as one faces the 

 last steep grassy slope, a black Erebia glacialis starts in front, 

 but the species is apparently almost over here and, at last, a long 

 sloping ridge leads quite to the summit of the mountain, and whilst on 

 the one side of the ridge are the steep rough skrees where Erebia f/07r/e 

 abounds, on the other is a slightly sloping mountain pasture, on which 

 Colzas pldcomone, very small and in very fresh condition, is the promi- 

 nent feature, unless, indeed, the brilliant carpet of yellow Hieracia is 

 not much more attractive to the all-round naturalist. Once on the 

 summit, in spite of the sun, the air is quite keen, but the outlook is 

 charming. A peep away over the Col Bouchet among the great mass 

 of alpine peaks that stretch away beyond the Italian frontier, now buried 

 in cloud, and then standing up clear-cut against tbe blue sky, comprises 

 a scene of beauty long to be remembered, the massive rocks reminding 

 one somewhat of the choicer parts of the Tyrolean Dolomites — 



Eocks — that rise in silent grandeur 



Far into the azure sky, 



Or that pierce the snowy circlet 



Where the fleecy clouds do lie. 



Larvae of Deilephila euphorblae. 



By FEEDERIC MEEEIFIELD, F.E.S. 

 The larvfe of Deilephila eupliorbiae are extremely abundant in the 

 Vals-Platz, the valley of the Lugnetz, an affluent of the Vorder-Ehein 

 in the Grisons, where I spent the last two or three weeks of August. 

 Varying greatly in colour, and to a less degree in markings, they tend 

 to gather into three groups, the most common one, in which the 

 predominating colour is reddish, very much the colour of red vulcanised 

 indiarubber, another form, in which yellowish-green prevails, and a 

 third form in which the ground colour is mainly blackish. The 

 conspicuous feature in which all three agree is the subdorsal row of 

 large light-coloured spots, varying from white to yellow, usually cream- 

 coloured ; all the other markings, except perhaps the reddish colour of 

 the dorsal line and head, &c., in most of them, go for nothing on a 

 casual glance. They lie on and across their food-plant, the fine-leaved 

 Eupliorbia cyparissias, or sometimes on a grass bent rising out of it, 

 and are very sluggish except occasionally when crawling from a patch 

 of their food-plant, nearly eaten down, to another. The subdorsal 

 situation of these spots is undoubtedly in this and other larvae which 

 feed exposed on ground not covered with a dense vegetation, that 



