44 The Irish Naturalist, January,- 



i 



TUBUUFERA. 

 Chrysis ignita, L- Hedychruin luciduluni, Latr 



ACUI.EATA. 



Vespa sylvestris, Scop. Bonibus terrestris, Linn. 



Odynerus pictus, Curt. Formica fusca, Latr. 



O. triniarginatus, Zett. Lasius flavus, De Geer. 



O. parietinus, Linn. L. niger, Linn. 

 Sphecodes dimidiatus, v. Hag. race, alienus. 



Andrena fulvicrus, Kirby. Myrmica rubra, Linn. 

 A. minutula, Kirby. race, ruginodis. 



Megachile liiaritima, Kirby. race, scabrinodis. 



M. centunculans, Linn. 



LEPIDOPTERA. 



BY W. F. DE VISMES KANE, M.A., M.R.I. A. 



The following list being, with a few exceptions, the result oi 

 only two or three days' work in June, cannot in any way pretend 

 to be representative, the spring and autumn species not being 

 included. The greater number enumerated belong to widely 

 distributed species not notable for rarity or local distinctive 

 character. But a few are worthy of special reference. Vanessa 

 to, the beautiful Peacock Butterfly which some twelve or fifteen 

 years ago was chiefly confined to the southern half of Ireland, 

 and rarely met with in the County Dublin, has of late years vastly 

 extended its range, and is seen in increasing numbers annually 

 throughout the northern counties. Among the Noctuae it may 

 be noted that the black variety of Xylophasia monoglypha is 

 frequent on the islands of Lambay and Ireland's Eye, together 

 with the type and many intermediate aberrations. This is, I 

 think, evidence, in the absence of dark local surroundings (as in 

 the smoke-begrimed districts of English manufacturing and mining 

 counties, or the bare, dark rocks of storm-swept islands that 

 rear their peaks to the west of the Kerry coast) ; that the melanic 

 variation of this species does not result from protective resem- 

 blance to local environment, as in certain instances, but arises 

 as an inherited variation. It will be noted that the only species 

 of the coast-loving genus Dianthcecia captured wa s D . cap- 

 sophila of the normal form, which haunts the whole coast of 



