The Scottish Naturalist. 7 7 



considerable number of the imago were tak^n, near the village 

 of Symington. I have neither seen lo, nor heard of any cap- 

 tures, since the above date. 



V. urtic^ is abundant everywhere throughout the county ; 

 every season we frequently pass clumps of the Stinging Nettle 

 with batches of from forty to sixty of the larvae feeding on that 

 plant. This insect frequently furnishes beautiful and striking 

 varieties, when reared from the larvae in confinement. 



Argynnis Aglaia. — This insect is abundantly distributed 

 along the sea-coast, on the sand hills, where not unfrequently 

 the pupae are found attached to the stalks of the bent-grass 

 ( Elymus arenarius).* 



A. Selene is found in some plenty in a marshy piece of 

 ground near Dundonald Loch, also near Tarbolton Loch, and 

 a few other localities in the county. 



A. Euphrosyne. — This butterfly occurs in the same locality 

 as the former, but is not so common, and appears rather earlier 

 than Selene. 



Melittea Artemis has hitherto been considered rare in 

 Ayrshire, and even yet cannot be said to be found in many lo- 

 calities ; it, however, frequents a damp meadow near the farm 

 of Langholm, where we first caught it, in the month of May, 

 sitting on the Scabiosa succisa, (Devil's-bit Scabious). The only 

 other place of its resort is a marsh at the foot of a wood near 

 Hill House. 



Thecla rubi. — This insect has appeared in several localities 

 here. One season, not many years ago, a few specimens were 

 taken flying among broom ; and on another occasion, in a dif- 

 ferent locality, several worn-out individuals were captured while 

 flying over bramble bushes, in the month of June. 



T. quercus cannot be said to be a common insect here. 

 One locality only is known to me, where it has been captured ; 

 this was in a wood near the village of Monkton, in 1856. 



Polyommatus Phl/eas. — This pretty little butterfly is abun- 

 dantly distributed throughout the county, and is nowhere so 

 abundant as on the sand hills skirting the sea-shore. There 



* The larva? do not feed on this plant, (though it makes use of it in this 

 way), but on species of violeL — Ed. 



