34 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



by five hundred yards wide. This island is uninhabited except 

 for a few sheep and goats, and quantities of sea-fowl. I paid 

 several visits and the results were most interesting. The island 

 has, considering its size and situation, an extensive Lepi- 

 dopterous fauna. The larvae of Peronea hastiana swarmed, as on 

 the mainland, and several species occurred which could not be 

 found elsewhere, including Anthrocera filipendidae, Sericoris cespi- 

 tana and S. littoralis. Perhaps the most remarkable colony on 

 Soyea was one of Abraxas grossulariata , which was rare on the- 

 mainland but swarmed on the island. The usual food-plants 

 did not exist, and the only plants in its haunt, except a very 

 limited amount of grass, were bracken and Calluna vulgaris ; I 

 have not any doubt but that the larvae fed upon the latter, which, 

 according to Mr. South in ' British Moths,' is the food-plant in 

 the Hebrides. 



I cannot say that Lepidoptera were met with at Lochinver 

 in great abundance, except in the case of a very few species ; in 

 fact the great bulk of them were distinctly rare. Nor can I say 

 that any great rarities were found ; one could hardly expect 

 these in such a remote corner of the British Isles. Still, a large 

 number of species occurred, some interesting ones amongst tbem, 

 and the forms in many cases were distinctly interesting. The 

 number of species observed in Assynt in 1920 and 1921 was 232,. 

 as follows : 



Those species marked with an asterisk occurred at both 

 localities. It should be noted that sugar was only tried at 

 Lochinver. 



Pieris brassicce* — Common at Lochinver, one or two 

 specimens in the hotel garden at Inchnadamph ; large, with the 

 black markings well developed. 

 P. ?■«£>«.— Lochinver. 



P. napi* — Towards the end of June, 1920, 1 observed several 

 whites flying in a swamp near the head of Loch Assynt; these 

 were found to be worn examples of this species very strongly 

 marked, and with a good deal of dusky clouding on the bases of 

 the superiors, thus showing some approach to the boreal and 

 alpine form ab. bryoniae, Och. A search of the sides of a ditch 

 draining the swamp resulted in my finding a number of ova 

 and larvae feeding upon Cardamine pratensis, the only wild 

 crucifer I saw in the district. The resultant imagines, 24 in. 

 number, emerged in May last, and are very interesting. 

 Although not identical with ab. bryoniae, they present a very 

 distinct approach to that form, and several of the females are 

 very near examples I obtained at Semmering in Styria at a 

 height of about 4000 ft. in 1910. The bases of the superiors 

 are dusky, and the veins are very strongly developed owing to 

 their being thickly shaded with dusky scales ; the undersides 

 are very strongly veined, the ground-colour of the inferiors 



