90 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



just getting well out. In point of numbers Hadena adusta took 

 a good lead, and was in fine order, many of the specimens being 

 very large and almost quite black. They were carefully looked 

 over on the trees on the chance of Grymodes exidis being among 

 them, but none of us were fortunate enough to get one. A 

 plentiful and very interesting species too was Rusina tenebrosa, 

 the specimens being generally smaller and much darker than 

 any I had seen elsewhere ; many of them were almost black with 

 scarcely any marking, and quite a contrast even to our West 

 Yorkshire examples. Very pretty forms of Hadena pisi and 

 H. dentina occurred in moderate numbers, and a very welcome 

 and not uncommon visitor was H. contigua. Only one Acronycta 

 leporina was taken, perfectly fresh, and, to our surprise, of quite 

 the pale southern type. The other visitors included Cymatophora 

 duplaris and very dark C. or, Acronycta menyanthidis, very pretty 

 forms of Xylophasia rurea, Agrotis porphyra, Gonoptera libatrix, 

 and a number of other ordinary species. Platypteryx lacertida or 

 P.falcula (both, I think), Ephyra pendidaria, and other common 

 species were also taken at dusk. Mr. King and Mr. Keid had 

 one evening's larva-hunting high up in the Black Wood, and 

 found, mostly on bilberry, those of Fidonia pinetaria in plenty, 

 a few of Noctua sobrina and N. neglecta (Mr. Reid), Cloantha 

 solidaginis (?), Cidaria populata, and some, also on bilberry, 

 which I think (and I had some feeding at home at the time) were 

 Oporabiafiligrammaria, though I am not aware that this species 

 has been recorded from Eannoch. We were told that larvae of 

 Aplecta occulta had been common shortly before our arrival, but, 

 judging it was then too late, we made no attempt to search for 

 any. We ascertained too that a few imagines of Petasia nubecu- 

 losa had been taken in the spring, but that the species had been 

 much scarcer than in some previous years. 



The fact that Hadena adusta and Rusina tenebrosa were so 

 much darker in the Highlands than in the West Riding of York- 

 shire showed that, notwithstanding all that has been said and 

 written during the past dozen or more years as to the probable 

 cause of melanism in Lepidoptera, we know but little more than 

 we did at the beginning. Both the species occur, the former 

 commonly, in the same wood near my residence, in which are 

 found almost absolutely black Boarmia repandata, Amphidasys 

 betularia, Hypsipetes elutata, Cidaria immanata, Miana strigilis 

 (only a very occasional specimen of this being other than var. 

 cethiops), and other species ; and yet on the same ground Hadena 

 adusta and Rusina tenebrosa are paler than at Rannoch, where 

 the air is as nearly absolutely free from smoke or anything of 

 that character as possible. On the other hand, I believe all the 

 species I have mentioned as being so dark here are, excepting 

 possibly Miana strigilis, of quite ordinary type at Rannoch. The 

 much paler Melanippe tristata, too, gave the moth quite a different 



