Short Notes on Natural History. 559 



NOTE ON ZYG^ENA MINOS. 

 ["ZOOLOGIST," Sept., 1854.] 



So little is known respecting the new Zygaena in Britain, that it is 

 hoped a few remarks made in a second Irish locality will not be unin- 

 teresting. In this neighbourhood* I first noticed Zygaena minos in 

 the summer of 1851, but unfortunately then referred it to what is 

 described as a suffused variety of Z. filipendulae, a mistake which may 

 possibly have occurred to other collectors in England. The insect 

 here appears about the first week in June, a fortnight earlier than 

 Z. filipendulae, and is in perfection by the middle of the month ; it then 

 swarms on many parts of the rock-strewn pasture so characteristic of 

 the mountain limestone districts in the West of Ireland, where the 

 stones frequently occupy the ground almost to the exclusion of vegeta- 

 tion. I have not yet succeeded in ascertaining its food, but, from the 

 abundance in its haunts of Lotus corniculatus and Anthyllis vulneraria, 

 it seems very possible that either or both of these constitute its diet. 

 Some eggs laid on the i5th of June were hatched a few days ago, but I 

 fear I shall not be able to rear the larvae through their refusal to eat, 

 As regards the distribution of Zygaena minos in Ireland, it occurs all 

 round Castle Taylor, and I have also traced it within the limits of the 

 Co. Galway as far as Garryland, 8 miles south of this, and Tyrone, 

 near Kilcolgan, 4 miles to the north-west. It is more particularly 

 abundant towards the sea. From the prevalence in its favourite 

 localities of certain plants, such as Gentiana verna, Dryas octopetala, 

 Sesleria caerulea, Arbutus uva-ursi, &c., which are, I believe, common 

 to a rather extensive tract in these parts, and especially characteristic 

 of the Burren mountains in Clare, where the insect was first taken by 

 Mr. H. Milner, it seems probable that Zygaena minos has also an 

 extensive range through the district inhabited by these alpine plants ; 

 that is, in this country as far north as Galway, and throughout the 

 limestone district of the north of Clare ; how far it may range inland 

 remains to be ascertained. An insect, too, which inhabits Germany, 

 Switzerland, and France can hardly be expected to remain long 

 peculiar to Ireland only of the British Islands, whether we look to 

 Teesdale from its botanical similarity, or to the Southern and Western 

 counties, for its occurrence in England. 



THE ARCTIC TERN (STERNA ARCTICA) NESTING ON 

 FRESH WATER. 



["ZOOLOGIST," March, 1860.] 



In Thompson's ' Birds of Ireland,' vol. in., p. 295, it is stated that 

 "as far as the observation of the writer extended, the Arctic Tern 

 selects only maritime localities for breeding purposes." That the 



* Castle Taylor. 



