107 



Burnet moths, and is probably the first step in the genetic sequence 

 of colour towards the yellow Burnets one frequently finds. Exposure 

 may increase the pallor, but it certainly is not the first cause of it. 

 The primary cause is undoubtedly pathological. 



Transalpina, however, is not a species which in the true sense of 

 the word varies. Its beauty lies in the depth and intensity of its 

 colouring, which sparkles with metallic brilliancy in the sun, 

 changing with every movement — the iridescent beauty of green for 

 purple, of purple for green. I have before said that early morning 

 is the time to see this fine insect. Burnets, I know, can always be 

 found on the flowers when the shadows of evening are falling, but 

 then they have had a rough day's work, made love perhaps, fought 

 their real or mimic battles, hustled one another for a sip at the 

 nectar of the flowers ; dived their heads into out-of-the-way corners 

 to carry pollen and to fertilise the flowers they rob, and their con- 

 dition is thus less fine, their beauty less fresh, than in the early 

 morning. Then when the dew yet hangs upon the grass, breaking 

 up the slanting rays of light that pierce the bright needles of larch, 

 or the darker ones of fir, which in their turn change the dew into 

 matchless gems reflecting in thousands of sparkling beams their 

 rainbow hues, the lovely Burnet transalpina must be owned to be 

 unequalled by any rival, and must be held to be a fitting inhabitant 

 of the incomprehensibly charming nooks which the Swiss valleys so 

 frequently give us. 



Zyggena medicaginis, Bdv., and its varieties. 

 By J. W. TuTT, F.E.S. Read December xT^th, 1894. 



A thin coating of fresh snow on the mountains all around us, 

 a feeling of chiUiness as great masses of cloud roll over the 

 mountain peaks and envelop every now and again the cosy hospice 

 in the pass of the Little St. Bernard, are almost all that is left to 

 remind us of the magnificent Alpine storm through which we passed 

 as we ascended on the previous night. 



Such a storm ! An impenetrable mist of blackest hue ; thick 

 vapour, causing a darkness which may be felt, envelops every- 

 thing ; vivid sheets of lightning stretch from peak to peak — no 

 short fleeting line of light, but flashes that stand out in exquisite 

 brilliancy against the black sheet of cloud yonder, a zigzag line 

 which lights up the scene with vivid grandeur, a photograph on 

 Nature's grandest scale ; all around the reverberating peals echo 

 and re-echo from abysmal depths, causing the rocks to tremble, 

 and raising for a moment in the mind a sense of the greatest in- 

 security as the horse toils wearily along up the narrow path of the 

 pass, below which falls, black and gaping, a yawning abyss of un- 

 fathomable depth, in which the demons of cioudland are now 



