232 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ENTOMOLOGY OF ICELAND: NOTES UPON A VISIT 



IN 1889. 

 By the Rev. F. A. Walker, D.D., F.L.S., &c. 



It will be remembered that I recently asked for information 

 upon the subject of butterflies in Iceland (Entom. 157). As yet 

 my own evidence is negative-,, and I can only say I have ridden 

 200 miles in the south-west district of the island, viz., 75 miles 

 from Reykjavik via Thingvellir to the Geysir and back (150), and 

 25 miles from Eeykjavik to Krisuvik and back, and have never 

 seen or heard of a single rliopalocerous insect. Some of the days 

 occupied in this mode of travel were so fine and hot, that had there 

 been any butterflies at all in the district I feel sure I should have 

 seen them, more especially as all my time was not spent in riding, 

 but I halted two or three days at Thingvellir, and took several 

 strolls in its valley, during some of the finest weather that we 

 enjoyed on our expedition. What will probably be regarded as a 

 stronger evidence of their non-existence is the fact that Mr. Paterson 

 — a most genial and pleasant Scotchman, who has resided eleven 

 years at Hafnafjordur, in the capacity of English consul, as well 

 as merchfint— informed me that he had not seen a single butterfly 

 during the whole of that period. 



I am informed, on the reliabletestimony of Mr. JonThoroddsen, 

 of Eeykjavik, who is occupied on the geological survey of the 

 island, that he observed a single specimen of Vanessa cardui in 

 Shore Street, Eeykjavik, last summer; he said that he knew it 

 again from having seen it in Denmark. He is of opinion that it 

 made its appearance from oif one of the Danish steamers or 

 merchant vessels that run periodically between Eeykjavik and 

 Copenhagen. This seems probable, particularly as no second 

 specimen is recorded. 



In addition to the places in the south-west to which I have 

 ridden, I have also coasted along the greater part of the island, 

 and landed, net in hand, at every fjord where the steamer stopped 

 for a few hours, weather permitting, without seeing any butterfly. 



It is my belief that in the passage in which Mr. Symington 

 speaks (in his ' Iceland and the Faroes by Pen and Pencil,' 

 published in 1862) of white and blue butterflies, — both flying and 

 fluttering kinds, in the neighbourhood of the Bruara River, which 

 we crossed en route to the Geysir, — that he must have meant 

 moths, and the Geometridse in particular, so abundant there, of 

 which the ground colour is white, with a bluish or gre3ash crooked 

 band across the fore wings. 



Mr. Steincke — who passes part of the year in Akureyri and 

 part in Copenhagen, and who is now on board our steamer, the 

 ' Thyra,' as I write, bound for the latter place — informed me that 

 there were a great number of beetles to be found in the North of 



