1916] 93 



Then follows the main part of the paper : the lists of species collected, 

 during the course of the present inquiry, by the keepers of a number of Scottish 

 lighthouses, and by Mr. Evans himself when visiting some of these. The 

 records are arranged in four groups: (i) much the largest series, from 

 lighthouses in the Forth area; (ii) from Killantringan lighthouse, coast of 

 Wigtownshire ; (iii) from the Butt of Lewds, Outer Hebrides ; (iv) from 

 Orkney and Shetland. About 6000 moths have passed through Mr. Evans' 

 hands, 4000 of these being from the Isle of May light alone. The greatest 

 number taken in one night was from the Isle of May in the third week 

 of July, when about 400 moths belonging to 30 species were secured. 

 Catches almost eqi^ally large were made on several other occasions. As 

 is ixsually the case with "mothing," mild, overcast nights, Avith little or 

 no wind, are best. The actual direction of the wind does not appear to 

 matter very much, but moths frequently come with north-easterly winds to the 

 Isle of May. Up to the end of 1914 the number of individual insects obtained 

 from a dozen lighthouses was about 7500. This does not include over 2000 

 specimens/ all female, of a Chironomid fly {Orthocladius sordidellus Zett.) taken 

 at two lighthoiTses in the Firth of Forth abovit August I7th, 1911. The list 

 includes 241 species: 161 Lepidoptera (the occurrence of two butterflies, 

 Vanessa urticae and Lycaena icarus, at the Isle of May is interesting), 18 

 Trichoptera and Neuroptera (Hemerobiids and Chrysopids), 40 Diptera, 10 

 Coleoptera, and 12 of other Orders. Both sexes come to the lanterns, but in 

 most cases males predominate, the proportion in some of the moths being two or 

 three males to one female. Whether the males are actually more numerous, 

 or whether they merely fly more than the females, is not known.* Only two of 

 the species obtained so far are regarded as certainly immigrants — namely, 

 Acherontia atropos and Sphinx convolvuli. But though the others are all 

 indigenous to Scotland, many may not be inhabitants of the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of the lights. For instance, the food-plants of a great number are 

 absent from the Isle of May, to reach which the insects must fly over at least 

 several miles of sea. The captures at the lantern at this place include a pine- 

 weevil (Hylohius abietis) and a Corixa, and four species of the latter rapidly 

 colonised a new water-catch made on the island. But the author does not draw 

 conclusions prematurely in what is only intended as a first report. Moreover, he 

 considers that the Nor-th Sea opposite Scotland is too wide for many immigi-ants 

 to cross, and that a similar investigation on the south-east coasts of England 

 w^ould be much more richly rewarded in this respect. 



[Note. — Attention may be called here to an isolated record of the captvire 

 of a moth at sea, which is likely to escape notice through being included in a 

 large systematic and faunistic paper on the Macrolepidoptera of the Seychelles 

 and other islands of the western Indian Ocean, collected by the Percy Sladen 

 Trust Exp. in 1905 and 1908-9. Fryer records (Tr. Linn. Soc, Zool, xv, 1912, 

 p. 11) that a single specimen of the large Noctuid, Ophideres materna (Linn.), 

 flew on board the schooner " Charlotte " Avhen about 40 miles S.W. of Platte 

 Island. There was a light wind from N.W. after 10 days' calm. This moth is 



* It is well known that male moths fly far mora freely to light than the females which 

 actually do exist.— G.T.P. 



