5224 Notes of a Tour in Switzerland. 



which appeared to be especially favourable for insects, without mean- 

 ing, however, to say that others equally good, or perhaps better, may 

 not be met with : I speak only of such as proved productive in my 

 own case. At Meyringen, behind the church and towards the water- 

 fall of Alpbach, there is some excellent ground, and especially in the 

 neighbouring wood, where there is the ruined tower of an ancient 

 castle. The broad tract of denudation caused here by the impetuous 

 floods and torrents which occasionally rush down from the Alpbach, 

 so abounded with a kind of large grasshopper, that it was difficult to 

 set a foot without treading on them ; they started up in numbers at 

 every step : they appeared to be of two species, or at least were of two 

 colours, some having the lower wings of a bright red bordered with 

 black, others with the lower wings blue. The first specimen I saw on 

 the wing of the former kind I took at first sight for some species of 

 copper butterfly. These insects were confined, or nearly so, to the 

 above-mentioned barren tract of dried mud and stones, which was en- 

 tirely devoid of all vegetation, save here and there a small patch of 

 Saxifraga autumnalis, Gypsophila repens, Linaria alpina, or the like, 

 which had cast such firm anchor among the stones as to defy the 

 fury of the floods, or more likely had sprung up from seed since the 

 occurrence of the last deluge from the Alpbach. 



Near the chalet, opposite to the Wengern Alp, besides other interest- 

 ing things, I met with a species of Mancipium, allied to M. Daplidice, 

 to which I afterwards saw in the museum at Geneva the specific name 

 of " Callidice" attached. Close to the upper glacier, at Grindelwald, 

 I captured a bright specimen of Colias Hyale. To one like myself, 

 unaccustomed to a glacier country, it seemed strange to find butter- 

 flies in immediate juxtaposition with perpetual ice! The steep 

 sunny side of the mountain, as you descend from the Grimsel into 

 the valley of the Rhone, abounded with butterflies, — more than I 

 can enumerate, or had time to catch when on the spot. Here was to 

 be seen Parnassius Apollo floating about like a large white feather in 

 a gentle breeze, Lyca3na Virgauriae, Hipparchia Hero, Colias (a pale 

 alpine species) Hyale and Edusa, and many species of fritillary, 

 and among them one much resembling Argynnis Aglaia,* but differing 

 in the under side of the lower wings, which were scarcely metallic, 

 having the silver spots nearly obsolete, — a closely allied, yet distinct 

 species. In this genus, as well as in that of Melitaea, it may be 

 remarked that an apparently slight discrepancy, provided only it be 



* A. Niobe? 



