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THE 

 MACRO-I.KPIDOPTERA OF THE EONDONDI-RRV 



DISTRICT. 



BY D. C. CAMPBEI,!,. 



Thk district surrounding the old historic city of Derrj' is most 

 interesting to the student of nature. Of course every district, 

 be it never so barren and seemingly unfruitful to the casual 

 observer, is full of interest to the naturalist. I think, how- 

 ever, we can claim a special interest for Derry, lying as it 

 does with Eough Foyle and Eough Swilly almost at its 

 doors, and having all the varied beauties of river and wave- 

 washed shore, and of woodland, mountain, and moorland, 

 within reach. Such a land, of course, provides a wide field 

 for the entomologist. 



The localities I include in the district are almost all within 

 some ten to fifteen miles of Derry city. One or tw^o favourite 

 spots such as Magilligan, at the mouth of Lough Foyle, and 

 Ballycastle, on the Antrim coast, are farther removed. 



The entomological work, of which the following list shows 

 the results, was done by ni}^ brothers, Messrs. W. Howard 

 Campbell, M.A., and Thomas V. Campbell, M.B. (both now 

 of Cuddupah, Madras), and myself. We were ably assisted 

 by our friend, Mr. James N. Milne, of Culmore. Our col- 

 lecting days extended from 1875 to 1884, and during these 

 years we explored and hunted almost every accessible locality 

 in our neighbourhood. The list may not be very large, yet it 

 contains many species of some rarity, and some of extreme 

 interest, as new to Ireland. In 1878 w^e captured Hcliothis 

 scutosa, a moth so rare in the British Isles, that Newman 

 omitted it altogether in his work on British moths. This 

 specimen was, of course, the prize of our collection. We 

 also took the very interesting species Nyssia zonaria on the 

 Antrim coast. The fact that the female is wingless, and that 

 the species had previously only been taken on the coast of 

 Cheshire, adds additional interest to the discovery. I am con- 

 fident that a careful entomological investigation of Donegal 

 would bring to light many rare, and as far as Ireland is con- 

 cerned, new species. I have to acknowledge our indebtedness 

 to the late Mr. Birchall for his kindness in identifying speci- 



