﻿58 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



burn io know something of its much more numerous congeners 

 on the other side of the Channel. When one thinks that in 

 little more than twenty-four hours one can reach the best 

 collecting-ground in the South of France or the Swiss Alps, 

 where in one day an active man may secure more species than 

 the whole summer through in England, it seems strange that 

 insular predilections should still so largely prevail. And what 

 proper estimate, for instance, can we form here of the true 

 characteristics of that alpine genus Erebia, with its meagre 

 quotient of two, as compared with thirty distinct species and a 

 vast number of varieties on the Continent of Europe alone ? Or 

 of our ten Lycsenidse against fifty or more on the Continent ? 



For the benefit of those who are unfamiliar with the aspect 

 of a Swiss Valley, from the lepidopterist's point of view, in the 

 month of July, I may be allowed, perhaps, to recall a stroll up 

 one of them, net in hand, on a warm day towards the end of 

 that month. For most species the end of July is late, at the 

 lower end of a valley, but there is often consolation higher up, 

 where species that were ragged 2000 ft. below have here only 

 just emerged. Where all are so beautiful and so prolific in 

 insect-life, it is difficult to make a selection ; but the one of 

 which I have the most grateful recollections is the Visper-Thal, 

 off the Valley of the Ehone. A friend and I explored it together 

 in July, 1885. From Visp to Stalden is an easy walk of two 

 hours along a pretty valley, where the vine is still in cultivation ; 

 a noisy stream rushes over its rocky bed beneath you, and the 

 snowy peak of the Balfrein blocks out all further view ahead. 

 The only rarity I met with here was a single specimen, much 

 worn, of the var. lycidas of L. zephyrus. Until a year or two 

 previously, Berisal, on the Simplon, was the only locality for 

 this insect. I took two females of it also on the Gemmi in 1886. 

 This is one instance among many of the fact before referred to, 

 viz., that, other conditions being favourable, the same insect may 

 be found at widely varying altitudes, a difference in this particular 

 case of some 4000 ft. 



We stayed the night at Stalden, a most picturesque old 

 village at the junction of the Saas and Zermatt valleys. At 

 6 o'clock the next morning we set out for Saas-im-Grund (5000 ft.), 

 a three hours' walk, but expanded by us into nearly five, by 

 reason of the many snares which beset our path — notably on 

 approaching our destination, when the sun had full possession of 

 the narrow valley, and species new to us were occurring at every 

 step — the most abundant being Polyommatus virgaurece, flitting 

 dazzlingly among patches of its namesake, the golden-rod, and 

 Erebia tyndarus and goante scattered generally over the meadows. 

 We spent five days at Saas, working each day in different 

 directions ; but the most remunerative in species was one on 

 which we walked up to Mattmark Lake (7000 ft.). 



