92 [April, 



The late Mr. G. Meade-Waldo. — We regret to announce the death of this 

 entomologist, which took place on March 11th, aged 32. He had charge of the 

 Hymenoptera in the Natural History Museum for some years past. A detailed 

 notice will appear in our next niunber. — Eds. 



Jlbstrarts of %ec&\\i Jfiteraturf. 



BY HUGH SCOTT, M.A., F.L.S., P.E.S. 



Evans, W. " Lepidoptera (Moths) and Other Insects at Scottish 

 Lighthouses, chiefly in the Forth Area." Scottish Naturalist, 1914 (March, 

 June, October, November, December) ; 1915 (January, February, April, June). 



This paper is intended to be the first of a series of reports on a matter in 

 which its writer first became interested in 1885, when visiting the Isle of May, 

 at the mouth of the Firth of Forth, to see migrating birds at the lighthouse 

 lantern. From that time onAvards he occasionally received samples of material 

 collected at lighthouses, and during the last few years has obtained specimens 

 with tolerable regiilarity. One of the main points in such a study lies in the 

 fact that, while the majority of insects attracted to a lightliouse may be 

 indigenous to the immediate vicinity of the coast on which the lighthouse is 

 situated, a certain proportion may be migrants from far across the sea. The 

 phenomenon of locust-migration is well known, but it is perhaps not so generally 

 realised that movements of a similar nature occur in other groups of insects. 

 As Mr. Evans says, it is a matter for regret that entomologists as a whole have 

 not hitherto taken up the subject of insect-migration in the systematic manner 

 in which bird-migration is being studied by ornithologists. It is to be hoped 

 that his valuable records may stimulate concerted endeavour in this direction. 



Naturally the term " migration," as applied to insects, cannot denote regular 

 half-yearly journeys to and fro as it often does in the case of birds. The life of 

 adult insects is far too short to admit of the existence of such a habit. What 

 have been supposed to be return migrations of insects are on record, but it is 

 by no means proved that they are actually such. The more or less irregular 

 migrations of insects resemble more closely the " eruptions " to which certain 

 species of birds are occasionally liable. Presiimably, failure of food-supply is 

 at the root of both bird- and insect-migration. 



Kefcrence is first made to a number of recorded cases illustrative of insect- 

 migration in general, examples being given of movements among butterflies 

 and moths, dragon-flies, locusts, Coccinellidae, and Diptera. Many of these are 

 taken from J. W. Tutt's articles on "Migration and Dispersal of Insects" (Ent. 

 Record, 1898-1902). The writer next summarises the published records of 

 occurrence of insects at the lighthouses of Great Britain and Ireland. Hitherto 

 nothing under this head seems to have been published in a systematic manner ; 

 therefore this gathering together of scattered notes and observations is of 

 considerable value. 



