Clare Island Survey. 



26 

 LEPIDOPTERA. 



By W. F. de VISMES KANE, F.E.S., M.E.I.A. 



Read December 11, 1911. Published Januauy 16, 1912. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The list of Lepidoptera here presented is arranged so as to show, by means 

 of representative symbols, captures on Clare Island itself, followed by 

 mainland localities on the shores of Clew Bay ; and in the case of a few 

 interesting species other records from more distant parts of Mayo are 

 added. Though a great deal of woi'k was done during the last three summers 

 by Mr. Greer, Mr. Bonaparte Wyse, and myself, the results are disappointing, 

 chiefly for the following reasons : — First, the enormous tracts of very wet 

 bog, peculiarly barren of herbage and heather, that stretch for miles in every 

 direction in Co. Mayo seem, in my experience, peculiarly devoid of Lepi- 

 dopterous life. The vast moorlands that clothe the sides of the mountains 

 yield a fauna peculiar and interesting, but monotonous and restricted in species. 

 Secondly, the coasts of Clew Bay are wanting in the wide margins of sand- 

 dunes with their peculiar flora and abundant fauna which form such a feature 

 of the western coast which faces the Atlantic. Thus a copious list of sand- 

 hill species also fails to be represented. Thirdly, the general absence of 

 woodlands, except the small stretch of plantations and scrub at Glendarary, 

 Achill Island, and some promising wooded slopes near Belclare, and woods at 

 Westport. And lastly, with the exception of the summer of 1911, the 

 frequent rainfall, the high winds that so frequently prevail, and the chilly 

 fall in temperature toward evening that characterized the western coast even 

 in the hot summer of 1911, and proves so disastrous to the flight of moths, 

 are too well known to the entomologist in that part of Ireland. Moreover 

 scarcely any of the numerous species which emerge from March to May 

 swell the numbers of the list, nor the large host of autumnal species that 

 are to be taken on ivy blossom in October and November. This is due to the 

 impossibility of getting research carried on at these periods of the year, in so 

 remote a district, characterized by so considerable a rainfall. The few spring 

 insects catalogued were taken by Mr. Greer in May. The results here 

 tabulated are chiefly records of moorland species, mixed with a fair proportion 

 of such as inhabit cultivated lowlands, rocky hillsides clothed with scrub, and 

 species which have an almost universal Irish distribution. But the absence 

 R.I.A. pboc, vol. xxxi. A 26 



