NOTES FROM TAYNUILT. 15 



a great number %ing along a slope on the moorland, mostl.y 

 fresh from the chrysalis. The males were remarkable for the 

 intensity of their colours, and the females for their great size and 

 rich brown hues, some suffused almost to blackness. I netted a 

 pretty variety of the male in Avhich the usual markings of the 

 anterior wings are superseded by graceful black lines. A dingy 

 type of Chortohius PamijJtilus was fairly plentiful everywhere ; 

 Lycana Alexis scarce ; a few Argynnis Selene turned up in open 

 spaces of the woods; and on June 19th I took a couple of 

 Melltcea Artemis in a marshy field : they were literally worn to 

 shadows, but I fancy the species would have proved plentiful 

 there at the end of Ma}-. A solitary granite boulder jutting out 

 from the interminably heather-clad moorland seemed to be a 

 favourite resting-place for some species. Here in a space of about 

 sixty yards square I secured a few fine and strongly -marked 

 Satyrus Semele ; also Zygcena fiUpendulce, some with confluent 

 spots ; and in their company two solitary Z. nuhigena ; also 

 Dasydia ohfuscata, Larentia ccesiata, Anaitis -plagiata. Some 

 tolerably dark Cidaria russata sitting close on the rock, but 

 sufficiently wary to fly off at my approach, also occurred here ; 

 but owing to the nature of the spot were easier to see than to 

 capture. 



Perhaps my most successful effort was sugaring. I had little 

 more than a week of it, as towards the close of my stay the 

 weather turned out something more unpleasant than the 

 proverbially " saft," and night-work was out of the question. 

 However I managed to obtain thirty-five species of Nocture by 

 this method of capture, among which my best takes were Aplecta 

 occidta, A. herhida, A. tincta, Hadena rectilinea, and Acronycta 

 leporina. My southern experience made the northern forms of 

 many of the common Noctuse appear very novel. Notably so was 

 Hadena pisi, tinged with grayish blue, and Aplecta nehulosa in 

 some instances nearly white and almost without markings. 

 Xylopliasia rurea var. comhusta, and black and brown X. piolyodon, 

 naturally occurred, while Hadena adusta proved a nuisance. In 

 consequence of the northern latitude, sugaring in June at 

 Taynuilt necessitated late hours, and my first round was never 

 attempted before half-past ten ; but as I found suitable posts 

 at the back of a copse, within five minutes' walk of the hotel, this 

 did not matter. 



