ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 257 



for I have specimens of this species both from the Firth of Forth 

 and from the Moray Firth. THOMAS SCOTT, Leith. 



Xystieus erratieus (/F//C'.), in Inverness -shire. Since the 

 publication of the list of Aviemore Spiders by Mr. Carpenter and 

 myself in the "Annals" for 1894, I have detected among my 

 specimens a female of this species obtained at Aviemore in June 

 1893. The identification has been confirmed by the Rev. O. P. 

 Cambridge.- WILLIAM EVANS, Edinburgh. 



Aeherontia atropos the Death's-head Moth in Sol way. 

 It is only seldom that a year passes without the occurrence of this 

 grand species somewhere in our province. Mr. W. F. Kirby has 

 expressed the opinion (Allen's Naturalist's Library " Moths," vol. iv. 

 p. 53) that it is much commoner in England than it used to be, 

 and he appears to be justified in his remark. At the same time, I 

 fully agree with Mr. Richard South when he comes to the conclusion 

 ("Entomologist," vol. xix. p. 147) that ''Atropos is rather a 

 wanderer in, than a denizen of, the greater portion of Britain, and 

 that the imagines and larvae which occur outside those counties in 

 which the species is more or less constant are either migrants or the 

 offspring of migrants." 



Extended migrations, comparable to those of the birds, do take 

 place amongst the Lepidoptera ; and what species amongst them is 

 so pre-eminently adapted for such flights as Atropos ? In the imago 

 stage it has been found from the Shetlands to the Scilly Isles. I 

 have a specimen that was captured on board a yacht which was 

 sailing at the time betwixt Gibraltar and Malta. I know of one 

 caught on a trawler midway between the Isle of Man and the Mull 

 of Galloway. Both specimens were in very good condition. Yet 

 for all its extended distribution in the British Islands, how seldom 

 are larvae found outside a few of the southern counties of England. 

 Has the larva been found in Ireland ? Mr. De Visnies Kane does 

 not say that it has indeed the contrary is inferred (" Catalogue of 

 the Lepidoptera of Ireland," "Entomologist," vol. xxvi. p. 269). I 

 am aware that the larvae are, or were, " in plenty " at Form by, near 

 Liverpool ("Naturalist," 1886, p. 50); but, as has been already 

 stated, outside of a strictly southern limit, the occurrence of the larva 

 is quite exceptional. 



Last year, my friend Mr. Thomas Rae Bruce told me of the 

 finding of a larva of Atropos at Cairnryan, Wigtownshire, on 24th 

 August. Mr. Bruce's knowledge of natural history sufficiently 

 authenticates the identity of the capture ; and I have at present in 

 safe keeping a larva of Atropos a magnificent fellow, of the greenish 

 type of coloration and am assiduously watching its preparations for 

 pupation. It was found in a potato field at Cluden, a few miles 

 from Dumfries, and given to me by Mr. G. F. Scott-Elliot on the 

 4th September current. The rarity of the species in the caterpillar 



