A [January, 



Dr. N. Annandale, in his very interesting little work " The Faroes 

 and Iceland," pubhslied in 1905, remarks (p. 214) : " Butterflies do not 

 exist as natives of Iceland and the Faroes ; but a specimen of the Painted 

 Lad\^ has been recorded from the Faroes, and several species apparently 

 visit Iceland as occasional immigrants from Greenland, though I do not 

 know that any have actually been recorded. There are specimens, said 

 to have been caught in Iceland, in the Natural History Museum at 

 Reykjavik, and they probably belong to a species of Fritillary which 

 is well known as an Arctic form." Quite recently Dr. Annandale has 

 informed me that this " Fritillar}' " is one of the smaller kinds, probably 

 one of the circumpolar species of Brenthis, and it may even be the 

 JB. freyja reported by Kirby to occur in Iceland on the authority of 

 De Villiei-s and Guenee. Without seeing the specimens, however, it is 

 impossible to say with certainty what the insect really is ; but I very 

 much doubt Avhether any of the few species of butterflies that occur in 

 East Greenland, none of wliich are known to he migrants, can be able to 

 cross the 250 miles of more or less ice-encumbered sea which separates 

 that country from Iceland. 



The latest paper that I can find which deals with the subject of 

 Icelandic Lepidoptera is one by Dr. C. Aurivillius (Arkiv for Zoologi, 

 Eand 8, No, 12, pp. 15-17), treating of the insects of that Order met with 

 by Dr. Axel Freiherr von Klinckowstrom in Iceland and the Faeroe Islands 

 in 1909-10. One or two species are added to the list of those already 

 known from the former island, but again there is no mention of the 

 occurrence of any butterfly. 



Quite recently, through the kind offices of the Eev. Dr. Skat- 

 Hoffmeyer, of Copenhagen, I have been placed in communication with 

 Dr. Bjarni Saemundsson, the Curator of the Natural History Museum of 

 Eeykjavik, who has very courteously given me particulars of the fol- 

 lowing Lepidoptera now in the Museum: — 



" Vanessa atalantu. One, taken in Eeykjavik, June loth, 1901. 



" V. cardui. Five specimens taken near Eeykjavik, July 1S94, 

 B. Grondal ; and| one specimen (very fine) also near Eeykjavik, October 

 14th, 1914. 



" Sphinx convoiindi. One or more specimens, in very poor con- 

 dition, from the neighbourhood of Eeykjavik. 



" One specimen taken at Hvanneyri in Borgarf jord. South-west 

 Iceland, in the spring of 191G by Mr. Halldor Vilhjjllmsson. 



