590 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



There is nothing in the hahits or climatic distribution of this 

 insect to render its occurrence in Ireland a matter of surprise. It 

 is included in Sven Lampa's List of Scandinavian Macrolepidoptera 

 as being a native of Finland and Sweden, and it is taken in Livonia, 

 jST. Germany, Belgium, N. France, Central Eussia, and the Ural 

 Mountains. 



The third lepidopteron of considerable interest noted from Killarney 

 in Mr. Eirchall's list, but not of his capture^ is J^otodonta chaonia. 

 He vs^rites : "I have a specimen taken at Killarney. It has also 

 occurred in Co. Wicklow." There is some reason to believe that the 

 specimen in Mr. Eirchall's collection from Killarney was taken by 

 Eouchard. It is a rare moth, but has been found in several localities 

 in England, and not infrequently in Eichmond Park. It, and its 

 congeners, Dodonea and Trepida, are oak feeders, and on the Con- 

 tinent occurs throughout Central Europe, and in J utland, Sweden, and 

 Denmark. It emerges in Spring ; and I was favoured by about a 

 week of very fine warm weather on my arrival in Kilarney on the 13th 

 of April last. On the 17th I took a fine female specimen on an oak 

 at Derrycunnihy ; and two days later I found a male, which, however, 

 had been killed and considerably damaged. The white band on the 

 forewings of both is very conspicuous, and the insects larger and more 

 beautifully marked than in any English examples I have seen — a 

 character which the Irish Heterocera very frequently possess. 



I was also very successful in the sunny April weather in taking 

 various Geometrse in the daytime. Eupithecioe, especially pumilata 

 and abbreviata, were numerous ; also Tephrosia biundularia (= Crepus- 

 cularia) was pretty common on the tree-trunks. Tephrosia consonaria 

 was much rarer ; but the specimens were large and often finely 

 marked. Lobophora viretata occurred not unfrequently on pine stems 

 near Dinas. On those of birch I took more than one specimen of 

 Zylina ornithopus (hibernated) at rest in the daytime, which illus- 

 trates the instinct frequently shown by insects in choosing a resting- 

 place similar in colour to the pattern of their wings, with the result of 

 eluding observation. So difficult of detection is this insect in such a 

 situation — and, indeed, the same may be said of other species — that I 

 Avas more than once surprised at my eye intuitively recognizing it ; 

 while, if I withdrew my gaze for a moment, it was very difficult to 

 rediscover. 



Eoarmia cinctaria, also at Killarney, appears under the beautiful 

 white-banded form ; and for the same reason, I think, frequents the 

 white birch bark. I took but one resting upon oak ; and this was of 

 the grey brindled pattern, which assimilated closely to the character 

 and colour of the oak-trunk. On two occasions, also, I noticed speci- 

 mens of Tephrosia biundularia, when flying from capture, suddenly 

 settled down upon dead oak -leaves, choosing such as were coloured 

 similarly to their wings. Tseniocampa gothica was, as usual, very 

 abundant ; and I was much surprised at taking specimens of the rare 

 variety Gothicina, which is a Scandinavian form, but has occurred a 



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