44 
nose, just as I was calculating whether I was to sink gracefully on my 
back on the bank or roll with the loose stones I had incautiously stepped 
on and thus end my existence ; then, when I recovered, I saw him hover¬ 
ing over a flower at the very spot whence I had started, but when I 
got there he was just sailing away over the larch trees. I didn’t give 
them much chance of hunting me though, for we soon arranged matters 
satisfactorily, and whilst C. edusa, C. hyale and C. phicomone flew 
peacefully about the bank I lay in the shade and watched them. Ar- 
gynnids were in thousands, A. aglaia and A. niobe in dozens; and what 
grand fellows some of the latter are ! what marvellous variations they 
show in their silvery undersides—and in their upper sides, too, for the 
matter of that. A. adippe and an occasional A. paphid, together with a 
much larger but closely-allied species, with a really grand underside of 
green and red, were mingled with such lovely A. latona. Just out of 
pupa, they waved their wings airily, now on a flower, then on the rock 
at one’s feet. A. selene I saw once, I believe, but A. euplirosyne was not. 
A half-dozen other sjoecies besides perhaps fell in our way here, but 
their names are not on British lists, except perhaps A. dia, which some¬ 
times is and ought not to be. All our British Meliteeas occurred and 
many others besides— M. cinxia on the hill-side, M. aurinia high on the 
mountains, probably long over in the lower regions, and M. athalia here 
and there,with M.partheme, M.aurelia and many other species. The larvge 
of Vanessa urticae occurred high on the mountains, where nine-tenths 
must starve before they come to maturity, and plenty of imagos appeared 
as well. V. antiopa, fine strong-winged fellow, was only once seen here, 
but others appeared in the Cogne Yalley, where a pupa and evi¬ 
dences of some hundreds of larvae in the shape of their cast skins were 
found upon the willows. Vanessa io and . Pyrameis atalanta were in 
no great abundance, but P. cardui and its larvae were everywhere. 
This species was found up to the highest points we reached, sailing over 
the top of Mont de la Saxe and the Glacier du Miage, free and unre¬ 
strained. Limenitis Camilla occasionally haunted a shrubby honeysuckle, 
and Melanargia galatea kept company with P. apollo almost everywhere 
on suitable slopes. We made a special hunt for Erebias, and got some, 
although Erebia aethiops occurred but twice and both times at low 
levels (at Bourg St. Maurice and Gre'sy near Aix les Bains), but some 
allied species swarmed. Erebia epiphron in varied conditions of dotting 
and spotting was sometimes not uncommon. Pararge megaera and 
some allied non-British species occurred, but rarely in the higher levels, 
although the species was abundant in the Yal d’ Aosta, whilst H. semele, 
fine grand fellows some of them, were met with in manjr places. 
Epinephele ianira, with a double-spotted relation, and Coenonympha 
pamphilus were not uncommon. Of the Hair-streaks only one, and that 
a non-British species, occurred, but the lovely Coppers made up for 
them. Brilliant little gems are the males of Chrysophanus virgaureae, and 
abundantly they skipped from flower to flower, whilst C. pldoeas gave 
us here a bright form, lower down the dark form which Mr. Merrifield 
lias proved to accompany a high temperature and which has helped to 
prove that melanism is often the result of a physical (pathological) process 
which may be engendered in a variet}^ of ways. But Lycaenas are the in¬ 
sects par excellence of the banks here. L. corydon and L.bellargus, L. aegon 
and L. argus, L. astrarche and L. icarus, L. acts and L. minima, L. argiolus 
and L. argiades, with fine dark L. avion sport here, and quite a dozen 
