i»93-] 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



17 



Any hymenopterists, who may be present this evening, will be 

 interested to learn that a species of Bombus was observed flying 

 briskly about a sunlit slope at the very head of this Furka Pass — 

 8,000 feet above sea level. 



Before retiring for the night, a short stroll was taken to the point 

 of the Rhone valley fortifications, whence, under the light of the full 

 moon, we had a view of the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa, and other 

 peaks of that grand range of Alps. 



(To be continued) . 



RANDOM NOTES ON BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



BY JOHN E. ROBSON, F.E.S. 



Some time ago Mr. McRae, of Bournemouth, sent round in the Ex- 

 change Club Basket connected with this Magazine, some very beautiful 

 varieties of Cosmia trapezina. The most striking of these he kindly lent 

 me for figuring, and after an unprecedented series of accidents, in 

 which drawing, engraving, everything in fact but the insect itself, 

 was lost, 1 am at last enabled to present it to my readers. Though 

 the figure is a very good one, it really does not convey an idea of the 

 extreme beauty of the specimen itself. In colour it is pale-fawn, 

 with the band deep velvetty black, very slightly sprinkled with fawn- 

 coloured scales. It was taken at sugar in the New Forest, on 12th 

 August, 1888. Concerning its capture Mr. McRae writes : — "It 

 presented an appearance so totally unlike Trapezina that I had no 

 idea it was that species until I had examined it on the following day. 

 1 took three or four other specimens off the same tree, at the same 

 time, all having the band unusually dark, and all probably belonging 

 to the same brood. In August, Trapezina usually swarms at sugar in 

 the New Forest. I have often counted fifty or sixty on one tree, with 

 an almost equal number of Pyramided" I have seen some of these 

 specimens, and no doubt they would be considered very good varieties, 

 were it not that they are so completely eclipsed by the specimen 

 figured, which is probably the grandest variety of this species in 

 existence. 



