NOTES 47 



Fox-shark and Basking Shark off the Ayrshire Coast. — 



In The Glasgow Naturalist for December last (pp. 117-118), John 

 M'Crindle records the capture, in a trawl net, of a Thrasher or 

 Fox-shark {Alopias vulpes), on 25th October 19 15, about three 

 miles north-west from Lady Isle (off Troon). The lish measured 

 "from 16 to iS feet," with a tail yi feet in length. Several Basking 

 Sharks {Selache maxima) are reported in the same note as having 

 occurred in the same neighbourhood during the autumn months. 



Eriophyes tristriatus, var. erineum,Nal , in Edinburgh. — 



In October last I noticed that the leaves of a walnut-tree in Church- 

 hill, Edinburgh, were extensively deformed by the blister-like galls of 

 this mite. On examination Nyith a strong lens, the "pockets" of 

 the galls, on the undersides of the leaves, were seen to be full of 

 tiny mites moving about in the felt-like pubescence. In the February 

 1 9 14 number of this magazine reference is made to a record, by 

 J. W . Munro, of the occurrence of this mite on the leaves of a 

 walnut-tree at Brechin, Forfarshire. — William Evans, Edinburgh. 



Asthena luteata, SchifF., and Oxyptilus teucrii, Jord., 

 in the Forth Area. — When looking over Mr J. ^V. Bowhill's 1915 

 entouK^logical captures recently, I was pleased to find among them 

 a specimen of the pretty "Yellow Wave" moth, Asthena luteata, 

 from the Pass of Leny, south-west Perthshire, where it was captured 

 on the 20th of June. The species is known to occur in mid-Perth ; 

 but this, so far as I am aware, is the first record of its presence in 

 the Forth drainage area. Of still greater interest to me were two 

 Plume-moths, taken at Pressmennan, East Lothian, on 4th July, 

 which on careful examination I made out to be Oxyptilus teucrii, 

 Jordan. To be quite sure, however, I have submitted one of them, 

 which Mr Bowhill kindly gave me, to Mr J. Hartley Durrant, 

 British Museum, and he confirms my identification. The only 

 Scottish record of this "Plume" appears to be that by C. T. 

 Cruttwell referred to in Tutt's British Lepidoptera, vol. v. Crutt- 

 well's record is in a note on Lepidoptera collected in Scotland in 

 June 1905 which he contributed to the Ent. Mo. Mag. for November, 

 1905 (p. 260), and runs thus: "Most surprising of all \i.e., of his 

 captures], a specimen of what Mr W. Holland has returned to me as 

 Oxyptilus teucrii, from the extreme north of Sutherlandshire." In 

 Tutt's work, Capperia heterodactylus, Miill., is the name applied to 

 this insect, but, as Mr Durrant has explained to me, the identity of 

 Miiller's insect with teucrii, Jordan, is by no means certain. — 

 William Evans, Edinburgh. 



