FOOT — ON IRISH LEPIDOPTERA. D 



The Minutes of the preceding Meeting having been read, compared, 

 and signed, 



Arthur "Wynne Foot, M. D., Fellow of the King and Queen's 

 College of Physicians, read the following Paper : — 



Notes on Irish Lepidoptera. 



The specimens of Irish Lepidoptera which I shall have the honour of 

 laying before the Society this evening, were obtained in the counties of 

 Wickow and Kilkenny during the past summer. I feel that they do 

 not deserve any attention on the grounds of variety or rarity ; and the 

 notes which I have made on the subject are hasty memoranda, fre- 

 quently jotted down on the backs of my collecting boxes, while shel- 

 tering under a tree or bridge from a passing shower. To these field 

 observations I have ventured to add some further remarks which 

 suggested themselves in connexion with particular insects ; and as they 

 have reference to the specimens exhibited, I hope the Members of the 

 Society will not consider them untimely or misplaced. I have always 

 had the feeling that this Society is one which loves to have some of the 

 nights of winter beguiled by the narration of field experiences of the 

 more cheerful out-door times of spring, and summer, and autumn; and 

 I think it to be a part of the duty of our Members to collect their 

 observations in the longer days of the year for the entertainment, and 

 perhaps the instruction, of one another in the longer nights of the year. 

 But it is my opinion, be it right or wrong, that field experiences should 

 be supplemented by reading the experience of others on the same sub- 

 ject, and I have endeavoured to combine with my few personal notes 

 such information derived from books as may, some time or other, save 

 others the time or trouble necessary to collect it if required. I hope 

 to have some future opportunity, before the close of the Session, of 

 bringing before the Society specimens of several of the other orders of 

 insects which I have met with this year, but shall on the present occa- 

 sion confine my remarks to the Lepidoptera, 



In the early part of the past July (1869), I had occasion to spend 

 some time in a part of the county Wicklow — the neighbourhood of 

 Newcastle — which is very favourable to entomological pursuits. The 

 wooded glens of Dunran and Bally volan, as well as the Glen of the 

 Downs and the Devil's Glen, were within easy reach, the two former 

 places quite close. My first anxiety was to get a series of the narrow- 

 bordered bee hawk-moth. Sesia bombiliformis, which I knew was to 

 be found in suitable localities in the county. Mr. More, and Mr. Car- 

 rington, of York, had just before I left town been very successful in 

 obtaining this sphinx near Lough Dan — their captures are recorded 

 in the "Entomologists' Monthly Magazine" for August, 1869, p. 

 67. On the 5th July I caught one at 1 p. m., on a gloomy day, wind 

 S.W., hovering over the red blossoms of Lychnis Flos-cuculi, 

 in a rushy meadow, full of rank herbage, bordered by a wood on 

 • one side, and by a stream on the other ; from its dampness, and 



