LEPIDOPTERA AT RANNOCH IN 1905. 55 



A few pupfe of Sesia scoliiformis, and larvae of the following 

 insects were also taken : Poecilocampa iiopuli (a lovely variegated 

 form on aspen, and a dull uniform brown one on alder and elm), 

 Lithomia solidaginis, Xanthia ferruginea, Plnsia interrogationis, 

 TcEiiiocampa jwpuleti (aspen), Leucania impura, Cleoccris viminalis 

 (all the black and some green larvae stung, the remainder pro- 

 ducing well-marked imagines running into the var. ohscura), 

 Cidaria tnincata, Larentia ccesiata, &c. The most interesting 

 results were got from the larvre of the Oporabias. 



On May 29th we beat a few alders, and, finding the larvfe 

 very small, did not try again till June 6th. On that day we 

 beat forty-four from alder, and twenty-nine (for the most part 

 much larger ones) from hawthorn growing on the same hill-side, 

 and one from a birch. From a row of large elms on the other 

 side of the valley we only got fourteen, which were, with one 

 exception, very large. All the larvae were pure green, except 

 one from the elm, which had a few faint red marks above the 

 spiracles. A day or two later we beat none from elm, and only a 

 few from hawthorn ; but there were still many quite small on the 

 alders. By June 10th twenty larvae from hawthorn and ten from 

 elm had spun their cocoons, while only four out of more than 

 sixty on alder were full-fed. This suggested that those on alder 

 were 0. autumnata, and the rest 0. dilutata, as we had expected 

 from the account published by Mr. Allen in the ' Entomologist,' 

 xxxiv. p. 43. As late as June 21st there were still some Oporahia 

 larvae on the alders, and I have a record of finding one on the 

 same food-plant on July 6th, 1901. A few very dark-green 

 Oporahia larvfe with dark cheek stripes were found on ling, and 

 three pale larvae, one with pronounced red markings, were taken 

 at night on sweet-gale. These last failed to emerge, but those 

 from ling produced four 0. filigrammaria between August 20th 

 and September 8th. Of the other pupae many produced solitary 

 ichneumons, nearly all identified by Mr. Morley as two species 

 of the genus Limneria. Nearly half my pupae were destroyed in 

 this way. All the larvae on alder and hawthorn proved to be 

 0. autumnata ; the imagines emerged from September 13th- 

 October 10th, and varied from very pale to glossy dark-brown 

 forms — one of the former and three of the latter having an 

 almost complete central band. The larva from birch produced 

 a male of O. dilutata. From the larvae on elm three 0. dilutata 

 (all pale, one with an annular mark replacing the central spot) 

 emerged on September 27th, October 3rd and 7th; one 0. 

 autumnata on October 4th ; and on October 6th two large pale 

 females of 0. ddntata ab. diristyi, which seems likely to prove a 

 true species. These results appear to prove that 0. autumnata 

 in Eannoch is a more general feeder than in the Enniskillen 

 district, where it is never found on hawthorn, even if these trees 

 are growing at the edge of the autumnata ground. 



