CYANIRIS SEMIARGUS. 309 



subalpine, and the elevation well above 6000ft., and where its only 

 immediate neighbours appeared to be Chrysophanus hippotho'e, Brenthis 

 pales, Erebia tyndarus, E. euryale, E. mnestra, Anthrocera exulans, and 

 other species that love the higher habitable altitudes of the Alps ; we 

 found it again on the flowery slopes around the Lac d' Alios, in the 

 Basses -Alpes, at a height of quite 7400ft., where Erebia glacialis, E. 

 gorge, Colias phicomone, and other sedentary alpine species were to be 

 found, mixed, however, with such occasional visitors as Colias edusa, 

 and Gonepteryx rhamni, which were observed as stragglers at this 

 unusual elevation, but C. semiargus evidently here also belonged to 

 the native fauna, and was quite at home. It occurred, too, on the 

 flowery pasture slopes at the back of the hospice at Le Lautaret, from 

 7200ft. to 8000ft., haunting the flowers with Cupido minimus, Polyom- 

 viatuseros, P. icarus, Hirsutina clamon, Plebeius argyrognomon, etc., which 

 all reached this unusual elevation ; but Le Lautaret is the most delightful 

 alpine wild flower garden. In its more lowland haunts, however, it loves 

 the outskirts of woods, openings of forests, wood-clearings, wooded hills, 

 wild meadows, exposed flowery slopes, etc., haunting almost always 

 the wildest spots, although occasionally to be found on the outskirts of 

 cultivated land, rarely choosing, however, the cultivated fields them- 

 selves. We have found the species flying commonly (in its second 

 brood) in the sheltered openings of the woods that clothe the Gresy 

 hills, sharing the wild sainfoin and lucerne flowers, with Everes argiades, 

 Agriades coridon, A. bellargits, Polyommatus icarus, and the whole army 

 of lovely insects that abound on these slopes ; in the Rhone valley, it 

 occurs between Roche and Yvorne, on the rough, steep, flower-covered, 

 broken, rocky slopes, that reach to the roadside, flying with an 

 abundance of Agriades coridon, Polyommatus icarus, Melanargia 

 galathea, Melitaea didyma, Hipparchia alcyone, and many other interest- 

 ing species. We have found it on the waste ground, through which 

 the zigzags rise between St. Michel-de-Maurienne and Valloire, by 

 the grassy roadside banks of the Dischma-Thal, in the flowery hollows, 

 divided by rough rocks and bushes that run up from the banks of the 

 Arve to the village of Lavancher, in the flowery meadows high up 

 above Megeve, towards Mont Joly, on the waste slopes by the roadside 

 at Abries, in the large openings by the larch forest, on the way up to 

 the Col de la Lauze, as well as in the similar openings in the forests 

 on the way to the Crete de Reychasse ; above Preda it occurs all the 

 way up to the Weissenstein, by the roadside, apparently affecting 

 Anthyllis with Cupido minimus, whilst we found it also high up at 

 Arolla, where it occurs on the borders of the wood between the Hotel 

 Collon and the Kurhaus. It was seen flying freely on the steep grassy 

 lower slopes of the Wormser Joch, well above Santa Maria ; it also 

 occurs on the waste ground between Santa Maria and Minister, with 

 Agriades coridon, Aricia astrarche, Polyommatus icarus, and swarms of 

 Erebia aethiops, etc.. just below the hospice on the Fluela Pass, and on 

 the slopes between Lavin and Guarda. The liking of this species for 

 marshy meadows has been repeatedly noted. Brabant, to whom we are so 

 greatly indebted for a first knowledge of the life-history of this species, 

 notes it as loving marshy meadows where Tri folium pratensis grows wild 

 in the Cambrai district where he has studied it. We have ourselves seen 

 it in similar spots, often high on the mountains, and it was, therefore, 

 only to be expected that the great stretches of natural bog-land on the 

 hills above the Lake of Zurich, should be one of its chosen haunts ; 



