" One specimen taken in Rcydarf jord, South-east Iceland, in Sep- 

 tember 1899, by Mr. Lara Olafsson." 



Dr. Saemundsson also remarks that " now and then people are 

 seeing butterflies, sometimes in great numbers, without catching them, 

 e. g. Vanessa atalanta (o£ which we have one specimen in the Museum) 

 and maybe some of them are V. cardui. Otherwise butterflies are not 

 citizens of our Fauna, only occasional visitors." I am indebted to his 

 kindness for specimens of Pyrameis cardui and Agrius convolincli, both 

 in very travel- worn condition ; these I have deposited in the Hope 

 Department of the Oxford University Museum. 



Thus it would appear that Iceland is occasionally visited by at least 

 three species of Lepidoptera, notorious for their migratory propensities, 

 and possessed of powers of flight sufficient to carry thorn across the most 

 stormy tract of the ocean in the Northern Hemispliere. All three are 

 well-known visitors to the Shetland Islands at not infrequent intervals, 

 and one of them, Pyrameis cardui, has been recorded by Hansen from 

 the Faeroes as long ago as 1881. Plusia gamma, its frequent companion 

 on migration, which was not observed by Dr. Staudinger in Iceland, was 

 taken at Reykjavik by Dr. Nordenskiold's expedition in 1883, and by 

 Dr. Mason and Dr. Walker on their visit to the island in 1889 ; it was 

 also taken by von Klinckowstrom, who records it from the Faeroes as well. 

 Whether Pyrameis afalanfa or P. cardui may be able to perpetuate 

 its kind in one of the warm and genial summers with which Iceland 

 is sometimes favoured, is open to question ; but the capture of the latter 

 butterfly in fine condition in October leads one to speculate as to whether 

 this does not happen on rare occasions. The flora of Iceland includes 

 four species of thistle, our two common British nettles, and the common 

 mallow, so that either of these butterflies reaching the island would find 

 suitable food-plants for its progenj'-. 



It may be of some interest to compare the scanty Lepidopteroiis 

 fauna of Iceland with those of the Faeroes and the Shetlands, the two 

 nearest groups of islands in the North Atalantic. The following table 

 is compiled from («) " Distribution of Lepidoptera in the Outer Hebrides, 

 Orkney, and Shetland," by R. South (Entom., vol. xxi, pp. 28-30 and 

 98-99); (h) "Fauriula Insectorum Faeroensis," by H. G. Hansen 

 (Naturhistorisk Tidsskrift, 3 Eaekke, 13 Bind, pp. 229-278: Copenhagen, 

 1881) ; (e) the lists of Icelandic insects by Dr. Staudinger, Dr. Mason, 

 Rev. F. Walker, and Dr. Aurivillius, already cited, with the addition of 

 the species communicated to me by Dr. Saemundsson : — 



