194 The Scottish Naturalist. 



appearance of an insect. The first woixcQ oi petraria at Mon- 

 creiffe was in May 187 1, when I found it moderately plentiful in 

 o?ie bed of bracken at the foot of the hill. Since that time it has 

 gradually spread over the whole place, high and low, wherever 

 the bracken grows. Had it been here before, it could not well 

 have been overlooked by Mr Herd, who has collected here for 

 many years. The best way to obtain good specimens is to col- 

 lect them at night with a lantern, whilst sitting on the last year's 

 broken-down bracken, or clinging to the grass, &c., as they sit 

 perfectly quiet with their wings spread, and the markings show 

 very distinctly by lamplight. 



Fidonia atoinaria. — Locally common. I have a pretty variety 

 of the female, in which the first line forms an eye at the base of 

 each fore-wing looking like a pair of spectacles. I am not aware 

 whether this variety is common or not. 



F. piniaria. — This is a very common insect among Scots firs. 

 The males do not appear to vary, the ground colour, as far as I 

 have observed, being invariably white. The females, however, are 

 excessively variable. Some are orange-brown with more or less 

 of the ordinary brown markings, others are marked like the male, 

 only that the lighter area is yellow instead of white, and the 

 black-brown in the male is in the female brown with a slightly 

 orange tint. In another specimen in my cabinet, the dark 

 markings are almost as dark as in the male, but the remainder 

 and larger area is smoky-grey brown. They vary also in expanse 

 of the fore-wings from i inch 4 lines to i inch 6 lines. 



Abraxas grossulariata. — I am thankful to say that I have not 

 seen this insect at Moncreiffe for many years, although I re- 

 member seeing it in the garden in plenty when I was a boy. It 

 has, however, occurred since that time in some of the cottage 

 gardens. 



Hybcrnia rupicapraria. — Common on all thorn-hedges. Ap- 

 pears about the New Year ; indeed in forward seasons it is a 

 question whether it is the last moth of the old year or the first 

 of the new. Mr Herd has taken them on the wing in copula ; 

 and I have no doubt that in tliis way the geometers with small 

 apterous females are distributed about the country, as otherwise 

 they would naturally be confined to the locality in which they 

 were bred, from the absence of the power of locomotion which is 

 given to winged females. 



H. Icucophcaria. — This is a common insect, and seems particu- 

 larly attached to the sycamore. It varies considerably in mark- 



