2 4 o ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



are said to have been common in 1847 on a hill in Skye, and 

 on " Bernarah " ; but apparently only one of those taken reached 

 maturity it was a female, which is wingless ("Zoologist," 1847 

 and 1849). I know of no other record of the occurrence of Nyssia 

 zonaria in Scotland. WILLIAM EVANS, Edinburgh. 



Aeherontia atropos in Solway. We have had a very remark- 

 able and altogether unprecedented series of occurrences of the larvae 

 of the Death's-head Moth in Kirkcudbrightshire. The first was 

 picked up at Kirkbean village on i2th August. The following 

 week no fewer than fourteen fine larvae were found feeding upon 

 the leaves of a ti tree (Lycium barbared) growing against the front 

 of a house at Rockcliffe on the coast of Colvend parish. On 26th 

 August another larva was captured at Kirkandrews in Borgue, which 

 is also, be it observed, a seaside parish. Two individuals were 

 picked off bushes of lilac in the vicinity of Maxwelltown on 3oth 

 August and 3rd September respectively. They were fully half a 

 mile apart. The last occurrence that has come to my notice is a 

 larva, also from Colvend, but found miles away from the Rockcliffe 

 examples. Thus nineteen larvae have been got to my certain know- 

 ledge. I have previously recorded the taking of the larvae of 

 A. atropos in Solway ("Annals," 1897, p. 257) as a most uncommon 

 event ; and although Mr. Taylor, with reference thereto, has made 

 ("Annals," 1898, p. 118) some singular statements as to the unique 

 habit atropos larvae have in Renfrewshire of harbouring in potato- 

 pits (!), it seems to me that the authenticated finding of caterpillars 

 of this species in Scotland is a contribution of value in the geo- 

 graphical distribution of this insect. I am strongly of opinion that 

 it is only at wide and infrequent intervals that a combination of 

 favourable meteorological conditions together with an immigration 

 of these great moths may take place, so as to account for the 

 simultaneous appearance of larvae over such a wide extent of 

 country as I have detailed above. From the latter half of May 

 till past mid-June we had extremely fine hot weather. During the 

 earliest days of that hot wave very numerous individuals of the 

 Humming-bird Moth put in an appearance throughout Solway. It 

 was quite a sight to observe scores of them at the flower trusses of 

 the rhododendrons. In early August only a few were seen, but 

 since May these pretty and interesting moths have flown con- 

 tinuously, and on some hot days lately they were quite numerous 

 again. I cannot help correlating the appearance this season of 

 A, atropos and M. stellatarum. I should have the utmost difficulty 

 in believing that the images of M. stellatarum that have been so 

 abundant most of the summer were Scottish bred. Did any one 

 observe their larvae? Similarly the larvae of A. atropos that are 

 now recorded can hardly be other than the produce of immigrant 

 females. ROBERT SERVICE, Maxwelltown, Dumfries. 



