May, 19 1 9, The Irish Naturalist, 57 



LEPIDOPTERA COLLECTED IN IRELAND BY 

 LIEUTENANT R. E. CUSACK. 



BY J. N. HALBERT, M.R.I.A. 



The following paper contains a record of butterflies and 

 moths collected in various Irish localities by the -ate 

 Lieutenant R. E. Cusack. We are indebted to his father, 

 Mr. E. Cusack, for information concerning the early training 

 of this promising young naturalist, who was only twenty- 

 two years of age at the time of his lamented death. He 

 was educated at x\ravon, Bray, and at Aldenham School 

 in Hertfordshire. After leaving the latter school he entered 

 Trinity College, Dublin, in January, 1914, and he studied 

 zoology also at the Royal College of Science. Shortly 

 after the outbreak of the war he obtained a commission 

 in the Fourth Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, but 

 before he had the opportunity of going abroad with his 

 regiment he was prostrated by an attack of pneumon^'a 

 which proved fatal. 



It is clear that Lieutenant Cusack began collecting 

 insects while still a schoolboy at Bray, but the great majority 

 of his captures were made during the seasons of 1913 and 

 1914 when the study was taken up in a thorough-going 

 manner. Even the smaMest kinds of moths were assiduously 

 collected, and there are many notes and some excellent 

 drawings of their life-histories in his diaries. It is gratifying 

 to find that his collection received the most careful 

 treatment ; aU the specimens are carefully labelled with 

 the place and date of capture, which is very fortunate, as 

 this young entomologist had not reached the recording 

 stage of his work. It is, therefore, desirable that there 

 should be a definite record of his many interesting 

 captures. 



Lieutenant Cusack collected in at least four of our 

 Irish counties, but most of his insects are from the Bray 

 district. The heather-c'ad slopes and w^oods of Bray 

 Head were favourite hunting-grounds, and as examples 



