26 1 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Of captures on the mainland the following species invite comment. 

 Vanessa io, formerly for many years scarcely to he met with in the northern 

 half of Ireland, probably extirpated by a series of inclement summers, has 

 now re-established itself in Ulster, and was seen in some numbers on Clare 

 Island as well as on the mainland littoral. Such Lepidoptera, susceptible to 

 comparatively trifling climatic changes, must have been introduced to this 

 country since its climate has become stable and temperate. Visits to 

 Croaghpatrick were made during the first half of June in 1909 and 1910 in 

 the hope of again finding the alpine butterfly Erebia epipliron, recorded by 

 Birchall in 185-1 ; but though the locality indicated by him was carefully and 

 exhaustively examined by Mr. Wyse and myself, no specimen was seen. The 

 sunless weather and chilly wind probably account for our failure. My 

 capture of a specimen on Xephin on the 9th June, 1897, however, proves its 

 survival on the Mayo mountains, but it only flies in bright sunshine. Plusiu 

 bractea was taken at Old Head, Louisburgh, in some numbers. 



The occurrence of Dasydia obfuscaria at Clare Island calls for a fuller 

 notice. Birchall, in his Catalogue of Irish Lepidoptera, gave Wicklow as a 

 habitat, and Mr. Bristow as the captor ; but that gentleman kindly inf ormed 

 me that the record was erroneous. Subsequently Kerry was given as a locality 

 on Mr. Birchall's authority ; but no Irish specimen was known until 1898, when 

 Mr. G. P. Farran took an example at Dowros Head, Co. Donegal. The insect 

 is a native of Scotland, where it has been taken in the island of Arran, on the 

 moors of Bannoeh, and at Ardrossan. The moths most nearly allied to it of 

 the genus Gnophos as well as Dasydia have every one an alpine or sub-Arctic 

 distribution. It is found on the Continent in Finland, Sweden, Xorway, 

 Livonia, and on alpine heights even so far south as near Larche in the Basses- 

 Alpes. Its food-plants are said to be species of Genista and Vetch. The 

 Clare Island specimen is unusually dark, and may be referred to Hiibner's ab. 

 canaria. This species, then, forms, with Larentia flavicinctata at Ballycastle, 

 Co. Antrim, an additional link between the fauna of Ireland and that of 

 Scotland and Scandinavia. Its introduction to this country may of course 

 have come about by flight with a favouring wind. But it certainly is 

 remarkable that the list here given is chiefly composed of moths which 

 inhabit Finland, as will be seen by the numerous asterisks appended to 

 Finnish species in the list below\ However, one of the Geometers inhabiting 

 Achill provides a distributional problem of more complexity, which may be 

 suitably discussed here. 



Nyssia zonaria, Schiff, has been for some years known to exist on the 

 sand-hills of Dugort, Achill Island; the Bev. W. F. Johnson, during the 

 progress ui this survey, has added those of Keel in Achill, and Mulranny on 



