NYSSIA ZONAR1A IN THE OUTER HEBRIDES 215 



NYSSIA ZONARIA, SCHIFR, IN THE OUTER 



HEBRIDES. 



By PERCY H. GRIMSHAW, F.R.S.E., F.E.S. 



Natural History Department, the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh. 



THIS interesting and very local Moth, the so-called " Belted 

 Beauty," has been known as a British species since the year 

 1834, but until recent years it was only recorded from the 

 sand-hills on that part of the English and Welsh coast which 

 stretches from New Brighton to Conway, a distance of less 

 than 40 miles. Within the last few years, however, the 

 insect has been observed, either in the caterpillar or imago 

 state, in a few isolated localities in other parts of the British 

 Isles, but always in the West, on coasts exposed to either 

 the Atlantic Ocean or Irish Sea. 



During an official collecting expedition in the month of 

 June last I was fortunate in discovering what I believe to be 

 an entirely new locality for the Moth, and one which con- 

 siderably extends its distribution. I refer to the extensive 

 range of sand-hills on the western shore of the island of South 

 Uist, in the Outer Hebrides. For a distance of at least a 

 mile and a half of the coast due west of Daliburgh, that is 

 to say, on the Atlantic coast of the southern part of the 

 island, the conspicuous and unmistakable caterpillar of Nyssia 

 zonaria was seen in myriads crawling over rushes, Lotus 

 corniculatus, and other low-growing plants which carpeted 

 these interesting dunes. So numerous were they, indeed, 

 that I found it necessary, before sitting down to rest, to look 

 carefully lest I should crush numerous examples of this local, 

 but here predominant, species. 



In this connection it is interesting to find that my 

 experience confirms an old record which was published by 

 Mr. J. B. Hodgkinson in the " Zoologist" for 1844 and 1845 

 and one that has for many years been received with 

 suspicion and distrust In the two notes referred to the 

 Moth is recorded for Skye, while the island of " Bernarah " is 

 also mentioned as a locality for the species. As these were 

 the first (and until 1899 tne on ly) records for Scotland it 



