ZOOLOGY, 



THE LEPIDOPTERA OF AYRSHIRE. 



By J. P. DUNCAN. 



A YRSHIRE, as a field for entomological research, is very 

 *• extensive and diversified — the coast for miles rocky 

 and precipitous — wild and romantic dells — extensive tracts 

 of heathy moors, with clumps of stunted birches (the favourite 

 food of many of the larvae of our rarer native insects) — 

 extensive ranges of gently sloping hills, stretching onwards 

 for miles, covered over with heath and marshes — fresh-water 

 lochs, and gently flowing streams, with banks adorned with 

 flowers of every hue — large tracts of natural meadows, swarm- 

 ing with insect life — deep and woody glens, admired for their 

 picturesque and romantic- beauty — forests of pine, beech, elm, 

 and sturdy oaks of a hundred years — belts and clumps of other 

 trees of less magnitude, planted both to shelter and to beautify 

 the landscape — hedges of white thorn, intermingled with osiers 

 and willows —old baronial castles and ecclesiastical edifices, of 

 the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, whose mouldering piles 

 are mantled over with the evergreen ivy (whose blossoms are 

 so attractive to many of our rarer Noduce). It is quite obvious, 

 then, that such a county as this, with such a variety of localities, 

 and so diversified in its features, must offer to the zealous and 

 persevering student of entomology, a rich and interesting field 

 for investigation. 



For the last twenty-four years I have been engaged less or 

 more, during my leisure hours, in visiting almost every suitable 

 locality, that appeared to me calculated to produce at the pro- 



