244 SOME LEPIDOPTERA 



XL 



Among the most memorable features of the autumn 

 some now passing (1901) has been the extraordinary 



Lepidoptera num ber of Red Admiral butterflies. Mr. Robert 

 Service, the well-known naturalist, mentions in the 

 current number of the Annals of Scottish Natural His- 

 tory that he counted upwards of two hundred of 

 these brilliant creatures in a walled garden near 

 Southerness. I cannot record anything approaching 

 that from personal observation, but one su,nny morning 

 in September I saw seventeen busy upon a single plant 

 of Sedum spectabile. 



Another of the Lepidoptera which has appeared in 

 unusual force in the North this season is the Death's- 

 Head nioth (Acherontia atropos). It has been found in 

 south-west Scotland, not only, as heretofore, in the perfect 

 state, but also as larva and pupa, which seems evidence 

 that this fine exotic species is now completely acclimatised 

 with us. The same seems to be the case with the Clouded 

 Yellow butterfly (Colias edusa), until lately supposed to 

 be recruited in Britain only by wind-blown individuals 

 from the Continent. ' Clouded Yellow ' years used to be 

 marked by entomologists at long intervals, but of late the 

 appearance of this swift-flying insect has been so frequent 

 as to indicate that some of the pupse survive British 

 winters. The cockroach, the bed-bug, and other uncleanly 

 outlanders have long ago established their rights as natur- 

 alised British subjects: in days when we have to deplore 

 the extermination or diminution of many of our native 

 creatures, we hail with welcome the spontaneous immigra- 

 tion of desirable foreigners. 



