1P22.] 3 



to be very unproductive. The whole of the insects ohtuined hx these 

 entomologists are included in Dr. Stauding-er's paper, in which Bll 

 species in all are enumerated. Of this number 110 belong to the 

 Diptera, 81 to Coleoptera, and 00 to Hi/menoptera ; the Lepidopiera 

 comprising only 33 species, little more than one-tenth of the whole, and 

 tlie remaining Orders being even more poorly represented; OrtJioptera, 

 indeed, being apparently totally unknow^n in Iceland. Respecting the 

 Lepidopfera, Dr. Staudinger (l,c. p. 229) writes as follow^s : — "The 

 33 species found by us belong to the Noetuae, Geometrae, and Micro- 

 Lepidoptera — Papilionidae, kipliingidae, and JBoinhyces are altogether 

 absent The absence of Pap)ilionidae and Bomhyces is more sur- 

 prising (than that of the SpJiingidae). Indeed, some authors mention 

 Diurnal Lepidoptera as occurring in Iceland, but I must decidedly 

 contradict these statements. In my opinion it is not possible for 

 butterflies to live in Iceland, and should they have existed in former 

 times they must have perished. The situation of Iceland has nothing 

 to do with it, as Diurnal Lepidoptera are known to occur much farther 

 north. To find the reason in the volcanic devastations is very artificial, 

 always hypothetical only, and can be refuted by the facts." He goes on 

 to suggest that the constant rain, the storm}^ weather, and usually low 

 temperature of summer, as well as the general absence of shelter, are the 

 causes which militate against the occurrence of butterflies in Iceland. 



In the summer of 1889 Iceland was visited by two well-known 

 English entomologists, Dr. Philip B. Mason and the Rev. Francis 

 Walker, D.D. The researches of Dr. Mason (Ent. Mo. Mag. vol. xxvi, 

 pp. 198-201) were confined to the rather poor region near Reykjavik and 

 the Geysirs in the south-west, but Dr. Walker (Entomologist, vol. xxii, 

 pp. 222-25, 240-49, 273-75, 299-302), besides collecting at these places, 

 landed at no fewer than fifteen fjords in the course of a coasting voyage 

 round the island, and obtained insects at most of them. Although a 

 good many Lepidoptera, including some species not included in Staudinger's 

 list, were met with by these travellers, no butterfly' of any kind was 

 observed by either, though Dr. Walker remarks {I.e. p. 222): "Some 

 of the days occupied in riding were so fine and hot, that had there been 

 any butterflies at all in the (south-west) district, I feel sure that I 

 should have seen them." But he also states (J. c. p. 222) that 

 Dr. Jon Thoroddsen, the well-known Icelandic geologist and ti-aveller, 

 informed him that he had observed a single specimen of Pyrumeis cardiii 

 in Shore Street, Reykjavik, in the previous summer. This appears to 

 hti the first reliable record of the occurrence of any butterfly' in Iceland. 



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