1 1 6 The Scottish Naturalist. 



a foot to eighteen inches deep. I do not know if this insect had a prescience 

 of the hard winter ; but I took several specimens on April ist, at least 200 feet 

 lower than I could ever find it before, though I have searched carefully for 

 some years. On March 31st I took Tccniocavipa gothica at sugar, and noticed 

 a good many Scopelosovia satellitia and one Calocainpa exoleta. On April ist 

 To7't7'icodes hyemana and Tceniocajjipa instabilis first made their appearance. 

 On April 6th I noticed another T. gothica, reversing the usual order of things 

 here, as the early sallows first showed blossom on April loth. The weather 

 was too wet and cold for me to venture out at night in my then state of 

 health ; but on April 1 6th my son and Mr Herd reported numbers of T. cruda, 

 stabilis, instabilis, and gothica at sallow blossom. The two former were of the 

 usual type, the two latter were more uniformly dark in colour than usual. 



On the high grounds in the north, probably, insect-life will be more affected 

 than in this neighbourhood — as in the first week of May in Athole Forest the 

 ice was thick enough on Loch Mark for a curling match ; and at the present 

 moment, May 31st, the hills are still covered with snow. As a rule, Chi}?ia- 

 bacche fagella appears here in March ; this year it only appeared in May. Semio- 

 scopis avellanella, usually a common insect, I have not seen at all. I have, 

 as yet, seen only one Tortrix, Cnephasia imisctdana, and a few Lithocol- 

 letidae ; whereas in 1876, for instance, I had S. perlepidana, Coccyx hyrcini- 

 aita, Heusimene fijtibriana, and several Lithocollctis pomifoliella, &c., by the 

 end of April or first week of May. I have noticed few signs of hybernated 

 larvoe, and I should very much doubt if it will be a good season for noctuce. 

 I have not observed that the imagos are affected in shades of colour, except 

 in the case of two or three E-iipithccia abbrez'iata, taken within the last day or 

 two, which are unusually dark, if they are that insect. Such is our season in 

 the north up to June 1st. — Thomas Moncreiffe, Moncreiffe, ist June 1879. 



Jottings from my Note-Book : Lepidoptera. March 28 — Hybernia rupi- 

 capraria, 28 days later than 1878, and 16 days than 18/7 ; colour is much 

 lighter than in former years. 



April 21 — Hybernia leiicophearia, 24 days later than 1878, and 26 days later 

 than 1877 ; colour lighter. 



April 26 — Vanessa urticce. I was well pleased to see this beauty in so fine 

 condition. Having looked in vain all winter for hybernated specimens, I 

 came to the conclusion that the two last wet seasons had nearly exterminated 

 it. Can we not get a back-door for believing that insects have more in- 

 stinct in choosing a place fitting for the coming weather than we are ready to 

 admit ? I was more convinced of the truth of it on April 29th, on finding 

 fifteen urtica in a small place, and where they would feel little of the lianl 

 winter. ^ 



April 36 — Ta'niocanipa gothica, 18 days later than last year. I got thirty 

 chrysalises on December 13th to try their power in standing the winter. I put 

 ten in below the ground about four inches deep, ten on the outside of the win- 

 dow, and covered them over with moss to protect them from small birds, and 

 kept 10 in the house between April loth and 2Sth. The result was — of those 

 I had in the house, four fine specimens came out first ; of those on the outside 

 of the window five came out, but not so fine ; and eight of those I had below 

 ground came out last, and good specimens, but not so fine as those in the house. 



April 26 — Tceniocampa instabilis, 17 days later tlian 1877 ; very plentiful. 



April 2^— Trachea piniperda, the first time I took it. 



