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Psyche 6:68, 1891.

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PSYCHE.
[April I&I.
GREENBUTTERFLIES.-"Grant Allen shows
that, while greenish flowers are among the oldest, really green flowers are the mobt re- cently developed of all and among the most conspicuo~is. Very much the same thing is true of Lepidoptera. Pale green moths, like Actias, Geometra, and Pxhyarches, are pro- tected by their colouring, which is common to both sexes, and are quite hidden when nestling among the leaves. Such seems also to be the case with Lekera eryx, a lycaenid which is greenish on the underside, and may possibly be the case with some Catopsilias. But bright metallic-green is, I think, the lat- est developed colour among butterflies, and decid~dly t h ~ most conspicuous. No one who has not seen it can imagine the brilliancy of Arhofila fcwquharii or OrnitJio$tera hoot- eana in the greenest jungle. The brightest of the metallic-blue butterflies look dim be- side them. It may be confidently asserted of all such butterflies that, unless the species is protected, only the male is green. The pro- tected Ornithopteras have sometimes assumed green colours as well a5 golden and orange, and the female shares in this useful ornamen- tation to some extent. In non-protected but- terflies the green is confined to the upperside and is quite invisible except during flight. In the Lycaenidae it is found in many Zep- hyri, in some Poritias and Masbagas, in a few Arhopalas, and in Lamfides maratata, a rare butterfly I discovered in the Malay Peninsula and named after its emerald tint above. Among all these, whenever the fe- male is known, it is blue, orange, black, vio- let, or any other colour but green The con- servative and, in butterflies, unadorned sex, has not yet acquired the latest development in colours. It is also remarkable that the green colours seem to occur where the genus is most dominant. The Malay Peninsula and Borneo form the great centre of development of the genera Arhopala and Lampides, and it is there that most of the green species occur. The outlying Arhopalas, those of the North-West Himalayas, and the Timorian
islands, are all blue. In Zephyrus, the green species are found only where the genus is best represented and most vigorous. Ze-phy- rus $avo, a species found in the Bhutan and Assam hill-ranges, remote from the regular habitat of the genus, has, I discovered, the male blue and greatly resembling allied fe- males from the Western Himalayas. The
green and orange Ornithopteras also occur only in the heart of the Ornithoptera region. These remarks on green butterflies also ap- ply in some degree
to certain other unusual
colours of great brilliancy, such as the shin- ing coppery gold of Ile~da brakma, and the fiery red of Thamala marciam. It ought to be borne in mind that such colours must
nevey be ascribed to a female without careful examination." W. Doherty (Journ. Asiatic soc. Bengal, v. 58. pp. 416-4171.
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THE HABITS OF BRACHYTRYPUS, the huge
desert cricket of the Mediterranean region, have only recently been studied by A. Forel, although, excepting the mole crickets, it is the largest known European form. The rea- son appears in the fact that it is a nocturnal insect, remaining in its burrows by day and even closing the entrance to the same (al- though it is three or four centimetres in di- ameter) to an extent of several centimetres, leaving only a little sand heap to mark its place. Dr. Fore1 discovered them by mark- r g the spot where he saw and heard them chirping lustily in the dusk, and the next morning detected the heaps, carefully remov- ing which the burrows were found. These
extended for over a metre in length and half as much in depth, and digging the creature out was a thankless task; Dr. Forel obtained some by drowning them out and others in a way characteristic of a myrmecologist: he secured a bag of ants, a species of Acantho- lepis, and setting them loose before the burrow, they entered it and soon ousted the occupant.
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ALPINE FAUNAS.-A~ interesting general
statement of the characteristic features of the entomological, and especially coleopterolog- Ps\&e 6 068-69 (pre. 1903). hfp //psyche aitclub orgt#6-0068 htd



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April 1891.1
PSYCHE.
ical, fauna of the canton of Valais, compris- ing the upper valley of the Rhone will be found in Prof. Ed. Bugnion's Introduction to Favre's Faune des coldoptferes du Valais, now publishing in quarto form in the memoirs of the Swiss society of natural sciences (vol. 31). Mi-. Bugnion divides the district into three regions or zones, the lower, the sub- alpine or forest, and the alpine, their highest levels respectively at 800, 2,000, and 2,700 metres ; the subalpine he further subdivides into a lower forest, whose upper limit
reaches 1,350 metres, and an upper forest region, the latter characterized by the preva- lence of conifers and rhododendrons. These divisions, as he points out in a note, differ from those of preceding authors, though not very greatly from the latest authority. Heer in 1837, writing for the whole of Switzerland, made out seven zones, each 450 metres in height after the field (campestre) which ter- minated at 300 metres ; the succeeding were the hill or colline with an upper limit at 750, the mountain (1,200)~ subalpine (1,650), al- pine (2,100), subnivale (2,550), and nivale (3,ooo). Rion in 1852 made four divisions as follows :-
I. Zone of cultivation, 375-1,263 m.
2. L L L'conifei-s,~,263-2,~5~m.
3 " '' alpine pasturage, 2,050-2,760 m,
4. " " eternal snow, 2,769 m. upward.
Christ in 1883 also made four divisions :- I. Lower zone up to 5-50 m. (700 in south Switzerland).
2. Zone of deciduous trees, 550 (or 700)- I ,350 metres.
3. Zone of conifers, 1,350-2,100 m, (2,300 in central Alps).
4. Alpine zone, 2,100 (or 2,300)-3,000 m. (perpetual snow).
Professor Bugnion gives a large number of groups of specific forms, mostly Coleoptera, inhabiting two districts, or living under dif- ferent conditions, etc., in illustration of their distribution, and after discuss-
ing at some length the geological antiquity of insects endeavors to show from what
sources the different elements of the entomo- logical fauna of Valais were directly derived. THE ABBE PROVANCHER has completed the
third volume of the Faune entomologique du Canada which has been appearing from time to time as a supplement to his journal, Le naturaliste Canadien. It is entirely devoted to the Hemiptera, and makes a volume of 354 pages and five plates. A large number of new species are described, principally from the Province of Quebec ; systematic tables of the groups lead to an easy determination of the species. It can be obtained of the au- thor at Cap Rouge.
The volume on the Hemiptera was to be
followed by a serial work on the Canadian Lepidoptera in the same journal by the
abbe Provancher; but the editor has been obliged to forego his intentions a's his jour- nal is no longer to receive a subvention from the Quebec government without which its
publication is impossible, and it will accord- ingly cease with the end of the present vol- ume in June.
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES.
CAMBRIDGE ENTOMOLOGICAL CLUB.
14 December, 1888.-The 141st meeting of
the Club was held at 156 Brattle St.
Dr. G.
Dimmock was chosen chairman.
Mr. Andrew G. Weeks was elected to ac-
tive membership.
Dr. H. A. Hagen remarked on swellings
along the midrib of the leaves of the young shoots of white oaks found by him which
contained hymenopterous larvae.
Mr. S. H. Scudder showed caterpillars col- lected this year, among them the adult and immature larvae of Terias lisa.
Mr. Scudder, in reply to a question in
regard to Anthocaris genutia, said that it was only found in New England along a line of trap-rock in the Connecticut valley.
Mr. Scudder then showed plates of eggs,
larvae, and pupae of butterflies, from his work on New England Butterflies now in
press, and remarked somewhat at length on certain species.




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