MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA COLLECTED AT RANNOCH. 105 
characters quite different from those here indicated, and has, 
in some cases, associated Teniocampe, Mamestre, Hadene, 
and Agrotids, as Lederer defines them, under one term. Our 
American forms are scattered among genera quite different in 
structure (according to my views), and I failed utterly to get 
at Mr. Butler’s idea of a genus. The above statement of the 
characters used by American authors generally, and before them 
by the Germans, is presented in order to draw from Mr. Butler 
his ideas on the subject. 
ON SOME MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA COLLECTED AT 
RANNOCH IN 1891. 
By Rosert Apxin, F.E.S. 
On 24th March of last year Mr. William Salvage left London 
for Rannoch, his object being the further investigation of the 
Lepidopterous fauna of that renowned locality. Collecting in 
Scotland is at all times a precarious occupation, on account of the 
uncertainty of meteorological conditions, and Rannoch is no 
exception to the rule. Mr. Carrington, in an article on this dis- 
trict (Entom. xvii. 145), very aptly says, ‘‘ Given warm sunshine 
and fair wind, it is not possible to set all the insects that one may 
take, so prolific is the locality ; but on the other hand, if cold and 
wet, which is more frequently the case, matters are precisely the 
reverse.” Unfortunately, last year matters were “ precisely the 
reverse.” On arriving at his destination Mr. Salvage found it 
snowing hard with a north-east wind and frosty nights and 
everything very backward. In the early part of May, when the 
‘*Sallows’’ were out, the east wind still continued, and during 
the month it was at times very stormy, snow still covering the 
hill-tops and ‘‘ the waves on the loch breaking like the sea upon 
the shore.” June was warmer, and the outlook for the rest of 
the season more encouraging ; but unfortunately “sugar” proved 
to be an utter failure, and ‘‘flowers” were hardly more attractive ; 
consequently the means by which the majority of the most- 
sought-for species are usually obtainable were of no avail. 
August and September, however, proved but little better than the 
earlier months; at times it was ‘“‘ blowing great guns,” and “as 
dark as November, so that no respectable insect dare move,” and 
a similar state of things continued until the season was brought 
to a close at the commencement of October. Despite these most 
unfavourable conditions, a very fair collection was got together,* 
and although it includes no new species, some of the series taken 
are of sufficient interest to warrant a few remarks. 
* Some few specimens taken at Rannoch by Mr. W. Reid are, for the 
purpose of this paper, included by me in this collection,—R. A, 
