308 



JOTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 



Notes of the Season of 1890 (Lepidoptera). — Inverness. — I spent 

 from the ist of August to the 24th of September at Beananach on the 

 river Duhian, a beau'.iful spot in Inverness, about 15 miles N. of 

 Kinsjussie, and standing at an altitude of S80 feet. Several lochs lie 

 snugly hidden among the surrounding hills, many of which, clothed 

 with thick forests of pine and fir, assume in the distant sunlight a hue 

 of the deepest purple, a striking contrast to their less favoured brethren, 

 on whose rocky heather-clad crags the sunbeams play in ever-changing 

 shades of grey and ochre. Beneath the hills, stretches a vast expanse 

 of purple moorland, here and there exchanging its brightness for the 

 more sombre hues of a peat-bog, waving with the white cotton-grass 

 and the delicate flowers of P. palustris ; the whole air redolent with the 

 fragrant sweet-gale [Myrica gale), and resounding with the ceaseless 

 humming of the bees and many species of Diptera, improving the 

 shining hours amidst the purple heather-blossoms, while ever and anon 

 a large dragon-fly (C annulata) darts past, handsomely clothed in black 

 and yellow, seizing and devouring any luckless insect which happens to 

 tempt its voracious appetite. It was in such a spot that I captured the 

 following Diurni, all I took in nearly two months : — One Argynnis 

 aglaia on August loth, three fine specimens of dvnonytnpha davits, two 

 ? 's and one 5" , the <? was just drying its wings on a sprig of heather, 

 this was August 18th, rather a late emergence? Two Vanessa urticct, 

 eleven Cce/wnympha pamphilus, eight Lyccena karus, and several Pieris 

 brassicce and P. rapcB — a gloomier record even than Mr. Frohawk's 

 (Record, p. 289). The moths, of which the Geometers formed the 

 majority, were almost as poorly represented, being as follows : — Cidaria 

 inunanata, common on pine trunks ; C. russata, two specimens ; var. 

 cenfuin-jiotafa, saw one, but lost it ; C. testata, common on moors at an 

 elevation of 3000 feet ; C. populata, very common in pine woods and 

 outskirts ; Ellopia pasciaria, one ; Psodos trepidaria, one ; Fidonia 

 pinetaria, common ; Dasydia obfuscafa, two ; Acidalia incanaria, one ; 

 Pidonia carbonaria, two, all on the moor; several Oporabia fili- 

 gramviaria \ many Parent ia didymafa, good vars. ; many L. ccesiata, 

 nicely marked ; a few L. riificinctata ; L. salicata, common, in pine or 

 fir woods ; Emmelesia blandiata, several ; Eupithecia centaureata, E. 

 sobrinata, E. vulgata, Thera simu/ata, T.pirmata, all common in and 

 on the outskirts of pine and fir woods ; P. simnlata showed a striking 

 variety in shade. Where the pine trees and firs grow close together, 

 and the moths are in the habit of resting on the trunks, a bluish-grey 

 predominates, harmonizing exactly with the colour of the bark, but in 

 open spaces where the ground is covered with dead leaves, needles, etc., 

 and withered pine branches have accumulated, the chestnut colour 

 greatly predominates, perfectly matching the red withered needles ; 

 often, when having marked a moth settle on the ground a itw yards 

 away (which they usually do when disturbed), I have been obliged to 

 commence scraping around with a stick or something to start it up, 

 being unable to distinguish it ; the light variety above mentioned is 

 equally hard to distinguish, always however settling on the tree trunks. 

 All the following Noctu^ excepting the first three species were taken 



