On the Occurrence 0/ Colias edusa in Scotland in 1877. 229 



almost over the length and breadth of the land. As the 

 editor of the Entomologist remarks, it was " seen in greater or 

 less numbers during June all over the kingdom, from central 

 Scotland to the Land's End." He might have said from 

 Ultima Thule to the Land's End, as one was seen in Orkney. 



About thirty years ago, a specimen of this butterfly was 

 taken in September near Lamlash, in the Isle of Arran, by 

 Sir Wyville Thomson, who was then a student in Edinburgh. 

 Some years afterwards it occurred in considerable numbers 

 in Annandale, Dumfriesshire. Since then, I believe, no 

 specimens have been recorded as occurring in Scotland till 

 the wet summer of 1877. On the 4tli of June Mrs Alex- 

 ander Eraser, the wife of the Koyal Scottish Academician, 

 took a magnificent specimen at the foot of the Eildons, near 

 Melrose. On the 14th June I saw another flying swiftly 

 along the edge of the railway at Seafield, near Leith ; and on 

 the 1st July I caught a worn specimen on an azalea at Spy- 

 law, Colinton. These are the first Edinburghshire specimens 

 on record, the insect not beino- included in the list of Mid- 

 lothian lepidoptera submitted to this Society, and published 

 in the Naturalist in 1852 by Dr Lowe and myself. On the 

 19th June a specimen was seen, as I have already mentioned, 

 in the island of Harray, Orkney. Numerous specimens 

 occurred in Dumfriesshire, Kirkcudbriglitshire, and Berwick- 

 shire, and it is also recorded from Galloway and Perthshire. 

 In the first week of October Mrs Eraser caught another fine 

 specimen on the coast beyond Port Seaton, being, no doubt, 

 one of the second or autumnal brood, resulting from the eggs 

 of the June specimens. At the same time it occurred again 

 in Galloway, and numerously in Berwickshire, and on Gullane 

 Links, East Lothian, as I am informed by Mr Shaw of Eye- 

 mouth. 



It is rather a difficult problem to solve, the sudden and 

 simultaneous appearance of such a conspicuous insect as Colias 

 edusa all over the country. Although an insect of strong and 

 rapid flight, and of somewhat migratory habits, the theory 

 that they all came over from the Continent is, I think, quite 

 untenable. It is evident, froni the freshness of many of the 

 specimens, that they were bred in this country, and in the 



