SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES FROM BRAEMAR. 253 



Supplementary Notes from Braemar. 



By RUSSELL E. JAMES. 



Having failed utterly last year in obtaining Anthrocera cxidana — the 

 chief object of my visit to Braemar — I determined to devote my summer 

 holiday this year to another and more prolonged visit. Correspondence 

 beforehand with Rattray, the Invercauld keeper informed me that the 

 season there was fairly normal, and so in order to make no mistake I 

 fixed the time of my visit from June 29th to July 17th, thus allowing 

 a good margin for error either end. As events proved I could not have 

 hit the time more exactly, and the shortcomings of my 1911 visit in 

 respect to this one species were amply atoned for ; in fact I found the 

 larva and pupa as well as seeing the whole rise and fall of the perfect 

 insect's life — apparently a very short one. 



Unlike last year, I had the whole place to myself — entoraologically 

 speaking. Mr. Home of Aberdeen was staying lower down the Dee 

 at Glen Gairn, and spent some days at Braemar for A. e.vidans, but 

 otherwise I was quite alone. This being a family holiday, the pace 

 was not quite so hot as last year, but somehow or other time was found 

 for a very considerable amount of work, the beauties of Callater Glen 

 and the e.vidans hill being judiciously impressed upon my wife and the 

 non-entomological friends who were with us. But indeed their 

 charms need no urging and speak for themselves. Back in the dirty 

 city, it is best for one's peace of mind not to let the imagination run 

 riot. One dares not think of the lunch of bread and cheese and cold 

 mountain water (not " mountain dew ") consumed at 2,500 feet up; 

 the wonderful prospect of mountains with their snow patches ; the 

 ten minutes lounge afterwards with a pipe, while e.iidans booms round 

 undisturbed — Well ! perhaps if one had these things always they 

 would not bring the same sense of the joy of life, but for my part I 

 could stand a good lot of them. 



On June 29th the long night journey and the morning motor ride 

 up the Dee-side over, a hasty lunch and change, and 1 was oft" to the 

 hills. While rowing me over the Dee the keeper said that they had 

 had three weeks' rain and he feared exulans would not be out for at 

 least a week. As I proceeded up the hill, insects that were quite over 

 last year were in plenty and this fact, combined with the utter absence 

 as yet of Larentia caesiata, so far confirmed the keeper's view, that 

 when I walked up and netted two fine Farasemia [Xeitieophila) (ilanta- 

 f/inis var. hospita I was tempted to stay. However, the sun was out 

 on the hill, so I pushed on, arriving on the ground by 3 o'clock. 



I sought for a long time, in vain, for A. e.vidam, only finding one 

 larva and three or four pupie. At last, however, one male appeared in 

 a sheltered corner, apparently just out. This was all for that day, and 

 on the following three days, although fine, the hills were in the clouds. 



The morning of Wednesday, July 3rd, however, was very different, 

 and I was off' early and on to the ground before 11 o'clock. As yet 

 cxulaHH was only just coming out and was restricted to the more sheltered 

 spots. By persistent w^ork for some hours, seventy were taken, but 

 another visit on the following day found them much more plentiful. 

 The first female was taken on this day — only one — but had not the sun 

 clouded over almost at once after my arrival, the males would have 

 been in plenty. The great day was on the 7th. This time Mr. Home 



November 15th, 1912. 



