LOCHINVER AS A LOCALITY FOR LEPIDOPTERA 177 



though amongst his captives there seems to be no species of 

 very great rarity so far as Britain is concerned, yet there are 

 some which are not of universal distribution in Scotland, and 

 others which were supposed not to range so far north. The 

 late Mr. Newman's conjecture that the rarity in Scotland of 

 Argynnis PapJiia " is rather apparent than real ' has not I 

 think proved to be the case. It is possible that A. Paphia, 

 a butterfly which cannot be mistaken for any other British 

 one, may at one time have been more abundant in Scotland 

 than it is now, since we know that this is the case with some 

 other Rhopalocera such as Pararge Megcera, EucJiloe carda- 

 viines, etc. When I compiled the Lepidoptera of Scotland 

 in " Insecta Scotica ' I got records of the occurrence of 

 A. PapJiia in two districts only, viz. Tay (an old record) and 

 Clyde. I note that Dr. Beveridge does not record Argynnis 

 Ag/aia, a widely distributed Highland species, but which is 

 not recorded for West Ross in " Insecta Scotica." At the 

 same time it can hardly be absent from that district. 

 Another interesting capture is Xylophasia Jicpatica, which has 

 not, I think, been recorded from any Scottish locality north of 

 Rannoch — a place where, amongst many northern species, some 

 southern ones (whose occurrence would scarcely be suspected) 

 are found. Forms of X. rurea (a species not mentioned in 

 the Lochinver list) are sometimes mistaken for X. hepatica. 

 Neither X. rurea nor X. lithoxylea are down for West Ross in 

 " Insecta Scotica," though the former must surely occur. The 

 observation that the larvae of Thyatira batis were sometimes 

 found on nettles is I think a novel one, and is curious because 

 there is no affinity between the genera Urtica and Ruluis. 

 Notodonta rjicrjac more usually feeds on willows, poplars, and 

 alders, than on birch. From his concluding remarks, Dr. 

 Beveridge seems to have met with a number of other species 

 of Lepidoptera in Assynt. It would be a valuable contribu- 

 tion to the entomology of Scotland if he would kindly 

 publish a complete list in the "Annals." — F. BUCHANAN 

 White.] 



