112 ENTOMOLOGICAL REPORTS. 



for Loch Lomond by members of the Section, (single specimens of 

 each having been taken at a previous excursion to the district), 

 were found rather plentifully on Inchconnachan, and the Green 

 Hair-streak was exceedingly common on Inchmoan. But on that 

 island the most remarkable capture was undoubtedly Eudidia mi, 

 not perhaps on account of the rarity of the insect, but on account 

 of the time of the year, for this rather handsome, day-flying moth 

 is seldom seen on the wing in Scotland before the month of July. 

 One of the most striking features of Inchconnachan was the 

 number and size of the ant-hills, literally black with the multitude 

 of their inhabitants. What these ants were doing we could not at 

 all make out, but they were all on the move continually, now 

 going one way, now another, and apparently without definite 

 object or purpose, behaving very much after the fashion of a 

 Glasgow holiday crowd at Rothesay. 



The most notable event of the year to the Entomological 

 Section of the Society was the appearance in great abundance on 

 the banks of the Allander of three species of insects not previously 

 noticed by us in this, our favourite, locality. These were the 

 Green Hair-streak, Thecla rubi, already mentioned ; Emmelesia 

 decolorata and Phytometra arnea. As if to further confirm our 

 theory as to the food-plant of the Hair-streak being the birch, it 

 was this tree that we found the insect frequenting in both the 

 new localities discovered by us last year. Phytometra anea 

 usually appears well on in the summer, but it was in full flight 

 last year on the 24th May. Another early appearance was that of 

 Hepialus velleda, which usually appears at the beginning of July, 

 but last year was observed at the end of May. The commonest 

 of our large Dragon-flies, Aeschna juncea, and a few other insects 

 were also early on the wing, but although the opening of the 

 season was so auspicious, what followed was hardly in keeping. 

 Many of our commonest insects — the genera Plusia and Melanippe 

 for example — were curiously scarce, and the later summer and 

 autumn were entirely featureless. Butterflies were quite as scarce 

 as Moths, and nothing of outstanding interest falls to be recorded 

 about them. I may mention that during the early part of Sep- 

 tember I stayed four days at Newbury, in Berkshire, and during 

 that time I only saw one single Butterfly, a poor wasted specimen 

 of Hesperia actceon. Mr. James J. F. X. King reports that Scopula 



