30 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



NOTES ON THE LEPIDOPTERA OF THE ASSYNT 

 DISTRICT OF SUTHERLANDSHIRE. 



By W. G. Sheldon, F.Z.S., F.E.S. 



Pkobably as little is known of the lepidoptera of Sutherland- 

 shire as of any county in Great Britain, and the Assynt district 

 being situated in the extreme west, its nearest point some thirty 

 miles from the railway, it almost necessarily follows that it is- 

 one of the least known of that extensive county. 



The literature on the subject is very scanty. Unquestionably 

 the most important notes I can find are contained in an excellent 

 paper by Mr. F. C. Hanbury in the ' E. M. M.,' vol. xxxi, 

 p. 1, but as Mr. Hanbury 's time during his stay was largely 

 taken up by botanical research, and the weather at the time 

 of his visit being extremely unfavourable, with almost continuous 

 rainfall, but few species of Lepidoptera were noted. There is 

 also a short list of thirty-eight species by Dr. W. W. 0. 

 Beveridge in the 'Annals of Scottish Natural History,' vol. i, 

 p. 172 (1892). These two papers are all the records I can 

 trace, but I understand from Mr. R. Adkin that William Salvage 

 spent the summer of 1894 in Assynt ; there is, however, no 

 record of the species he took further than reports by Mr. Adkin 

 of specimens received from him in the ' Proceedings of the 

 South London Entomological and Natural History Society ' for 

 the years 1894-5. 



I fancy the late Dr. Buchanan White knew the district fairly 

 well — more perhaps as a botanist than as an entomologist ; but 

 he does not appear to have published anything on either subject.. 



I had Assynt in my mind for many years, but it was not 

 until 1920 that I was able to traverse the ground which had 

 been so often thought of. 



Perhaps before dealing with the Lepidoptera met with I had 

 better describe the district, which is in certain respects quite 

 one of the most remarkable in Britain. 



If one examines the map of Scotland it is seen that the 

 only railway in the county of Sutherland runs up the east 

 coast, which for a few miles inland is comparatively well 

 cultivated and wooded; but between this and the west coasts 

 on which Assynt is situated, there is a stretch some thirty 

 miles wide of bleak sterile mountains and moors, almost 

 treeless, and except for an occasional shepherd's hut, and at 

 wide intervals two or three inns, frequented almost entirely 

 by trout and salmon fishermen, there is not a sign of human 

 habitation. 



It follows that the insect fauna of the west is extremely 

 isolated from that of the rest of Britain. Probably this state 



