TJie Scottish Naturalist. i6i 



frost hardening the ground so as the moles, rats, and mice could not turn 

 over the earth and destroy the pupse, that moths are so plentiful this season ? 



The moths in the beginning of June were nearly seven days earlier than in 

 1878, and from two to three weeks earlier than in 1877; and at the end of 

 June, when the weather was so wet and cold, they stopped for ten days alto- 

 gether. From the 27th of June till the 6th of July I never saw a moth that 

 had come newly out of the pupa state, and very few muCh worn ones. I have 

 seen more mutilated insects this summer than ever I saw before — some want- 

 ing parts of their under-wings, others their fore-wings — which may have been 

 caused by the long-continued frost on the pupa. Had the hot weather con- 

 tinued which was in the middle of July, moths would have made their appear- 

 ance earlier than in the last few years. On the iStb, 19th, and 20th of July 

 I took forty-two different species, all fresh and new, out. Last season the 

 Artaxerxes Butterfly was never seen here ; this year it is abundant. The com- 

 mon Blue Butterfly was very rare here in former years ; this summer I have 

 seen above fifty. The only ones, so far as I have seen, that are not so plen- 

 tiful this year are the Ghost vSwift {Hepialns Jmniiili) and the Clouded Border 

 {Loinaspilis viarginata). Last season I only saw one Barred Straw [Cidaria 

 pyraliata) ; this year, in the middle of August, they were to be seen in thou- 

 sands, hanging to the grass with their under side uppermost. On August 6 

 I took one fine Gold Spangle {Plusia bracted) on nettles. 



Another moth whose habits should be better known amongst lepidopterists 

 is the Death's-Head Moth [Aeherontia atropos). Does it hibernate? is it 

 double-brooded ? or have we to believe in the blown-over theory ? If it 

 hibernates, which we have little reason to believe it does, specimens would 

 have been sometimes seen during winter in a dormant state. If it was 

 double- brooded, we would have its larvae at two different times in one season. 

 Like all the other moths which are known to be double-brooded, every 

 writer that I have read about it gives September as the time for the moth ap- 

 pearing, and the caterpillar in August. It is rather out of the way of nature 

 for such a large caterpillar as Atropos to go into the chrysalis state and be- 

 come an insect in so short a time. For the blown-over theory, proofs are 

 strong in its favour.^ Mr Brotherston, Kelso, captured two in 1878 — one on 

 the2ist of May, the other on the 3d of June — both much worn, and having 

 apparently experienced some rough weather, 



Mr Hardy, Oldcambus, reports '^ one in June from Innerwick, East Lothian. 

 I have one fine specimen in my collection, got at Galashiels on the 20th of 

 September 1878, and by its appearance new out of the chrysalis. On the 

 25th of June this year I received by post one living Death's-Head Moth, which 

 was taken on the German Ocean, twenty-five miles from land (wind in the 

 east), flying in the direction of Shields about 3 o'clock A.M. There were a 

 few more moths seen at the same time, Mr Charles Form, Eastbourne, writes 

 me to-day: "I quite believe that the Death's-Head Moth is frequently a 

 traveller on its own account, for it is at times met with on the cliffs near 

 here, where there is no doubt that it has landed from the opposite shores of 

 France." May not all the Death's Heads which we get here in early summer 

 come the same way ? Let all who are interested try to find out. — Robert 

 Renton, Fans, Earlston. 



^ ' Scottish Naturalist' for July 1878, p. 292. 



" ' Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club,' 1 878, p. 532, 



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