48 TJie Scottish Naturalist. 



tlieir sanctuaries are rudely opened to the unscrupulous and often unthinking 

 public. — J. A. Harvie Brown, Dunipace, Larbert, Jan. 4, 1877. 



Has Meliteea didyma occu;;red in Scotland ?— At p. 25 of vol. x. of 

 the Entomologist (February 1877), Mr J. Jenner Weir notices the supposed 

 occurrence of Melitcea didyma in Dumfriesshire. In January last Mr 

 Lennon (who is well known as an acute and successful collector of Coleop- 

 tei'a) sent me an account of his capture of this butterfly. From his letter it 

 appears that he took, in June 1866, a butterfly, which, at the time, he 

 thought was a variety of Argyujiis Selene or Eitphrosyne. It was put away 

 in a store-box, into which Mr Lennon happened to look a few months ago, 

 and found the specimen of didyma in question. That this specimen is the 

 same that was taken in June 1866 does not necessarily follow, and, ihough 

 we do not for a moment doubt Mr Lennon's good faith, we cannot help 

 thinking that some mistake has occurred. M. didyma is a common 

 European butterfly, and it is not difficult to imagine how a specimen may have 

 been given to Mr Lennon, and he, in his enthusiasm for Coleoptera, forgotten 

 all about it. Mr Jenner Weir, while pointing out all the facts of the case, 

 still thinks that didyma is a likely butterfly to occur in Scotland, in which 

 I cannot agree with him. Like other MelitcECB, didyma is abundant where 

 it does- occur, so unless the locality has been much altered, it maybe ex- 

 pected to turn up this year if it is a native of Dumfriesshire. — F. Buchanan 

 White. 



THE FAUNA AND TLOEA OF CLYDESDALE." 



THE " British Association for the advancement of Science," 

 however it may have failed to fulfil all the expectations of 

 its founders, has at least the merit of having by its visits to 

 various localities, forced into crystallization the local streams 

 and rivulets of knowledge : in other words, the British Association 

 has in more than one instance so affected the local naturalists 

 of the place honoured by its visits, that they have been 

 incited to publish in the form of a " guide book," more or less 

 exhaustive lists of the Local Fauna and Flora. 



It is perhaps not to be expected that these guide books, 

 published at a price so moderate as not to deter any temporary 

 visitors to the locality from purchasing a copy, should contain 

 more than a curt indication of the distribution of the species 

 in the district, yet, at the same time, they form more 

 or less valuable additions to our knowledge of the geographical 

 distribution of species in the British Islands, and have, 



* "On the Fauna and Flora of the West of Scotland." Glasgow: 

 Blackie & Son. 1876. (pp. 148). 



