fnsects. 4075 



and reduced to a mere shadow. And so ends the history of my spider, after he had 

 lived in his prison for a year and ten months, without food.— Thomas Edward; 

 Banff, August 29, 1853. 



Notes on a short Excursion to Rannoch. — I had heard so much of Rannoch and 

 its surrounding country, of its entomological productions, and the very few who had 

 taken advantage of its richness, that for a long time I had been very desirous of pay- 

 ing it a visit. Indeed, at last it come to be part of my dreams by night as well as of 

 my thoughts by day ; but circumstances always prevented me from taking the journey 

 until the end of June, 1852. Of my progress thither it is needless to say anything, 

 save that it occupied two days in its performance, the first of these by conveyances of 

 all kinds, the second by walking over as rough a tract of country as could well be 

 picked out. For miles there was no cultivation, no houses, nor anything but high 

 frowning hills on either side, from the faces and down the sides of which huge blocks 

 have been detached and rolled into the valleys below, diverting the small stream from 

 its otherwise regular course, bending and twisting it into such fantastic curves, that 

 one might fancy it some huge Hydra writhing in convulsions. Sometimes the road 

 lay along the top of a great chasm, and now a rock interposed as if to prevent all fur- 

 ther passage that way ; now winding away far into the distance, as though it had no 

 end, and then over a great hill, six miles across. After about twenty- three miles of 

 this sort of country, I at last got a glimpse of the loch, with a few houses on its far- 

 thest shore. For miles and miles everything is covered with heather ; whilst here and 

 there stand a few aged firs, looking like monuments of the once great forest, or some 

 birches, indicating that they also have had something to do in former days in crown- 

 ing the now otherwise heathy district. Full directions from a kind friend who had 

 been there previously, enabled me very easily to discover the place I sought ; and so, 

 after a few questions, I found myself established for the few days I was to stay there. 

 After putting everything in order for work the next day, I went to bed, intending 

 to be up betimes, and, thanks to my long walk, slept soundly ; but when I arose on 

 the following morning, the rain was falling in torrents. This was a sad disappoint- 

 ment, as I had along quite forgotten that the sun does not always shine : however, it 

 cleared up a little about mid-day, when I set out to ransack the ants' nests, which are 

 very plentiful and very large, and for the most part formed at the roots of the black 

 fir-trees. Tinea ochraceella I found in abundance : many of them were sitting on the 

 heather and Vaccinium growing close by. Several of the females which I boxed, 

 ejected a fine, yellow, cottony kind of substance over the eggs they deposited : this 

 fine down was sent forth with great rapidity, until it attained the size of a large pea. 

 In the centres of the ants' nests I found several larvae of Cetonia aenea, which I brought 

 away with me, and have since reared some of them. The ants did not seem to heed 

 the Tinea while alive, but when I killed a few, and threw them on the hills, they were 

 at once seized and carried off. From decayed ferns I beat a few specimens of GEco- 

 phora stipella ; round about the firs swarmed Stigmonota coniferana : and whilst I 

 was boxing the latter, a single specimen of Tinea fulvimetrella came into my net. 

 Mixodia palustrana was not uncommon amongst the heather. Harpalyce ruptaria 

 was abundant amongst the birches, including some beautiful varieties. On the top of 

 the highest hill, whither I went in search of Psodos trepidaria, I took a few specimens 



