﻿54 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



Moths of Forth embraces at present 758 species. There is 

 need, however, of further work on the micros, from which 

 numerous additions are certain to accrue. 



Account for it as we may, there is abundant evidence that 

 butterflies were formerly more plentiful in the district than 

 they are now ; indeed, we seem to have lost quite a number 

 of species in the course of last century. In the older lists 

 we find Vanessa c-alhum, Pararge megcera, Pamphila linea. 

 and P. sylvanus, all of which must have vanished long ago, 

 And I fear the Orange-tip, Peacock, Speckled-wood, and 

 Ringlet — species I used to get in the Lothians when a boy, 

 but never see now — have gone also. Gradually, too, the 

 localities for some others are growing fewer ; A7^taxerxes, for 

 instance, has not so far as I know been taken in its historic 

 habitat, Arthur's Seat, since 1868.^ 



DiPTEEA. — During the past decade a decided interest in 

 the Flies has grown up, and the results are being published 

 by Mr P. H. Grimshaw as a section of his " Diptera Scotica." ^ 

 In the preparation of his Forth list, which so far as published 

 includes 599 species, Mr Grimshaw has examined, besides 

 those taken by himself, many specimens collected by A. E. J. 

 Carter, J. Waterston, myself, and others. Adding some more 

 that have been recorded,^ and a number still unrecorded in 

 my own collection, we have a substantial, though of course 

 far from complete, list of 700 Diptera known from the area. 

 This includes the sub-order Siphonaptera (fleas), of which 

 I have recorded 23 species.^ 



Thysanoptera. — The species of Thrips in the district can 

 hardly be less than 25,^ but they have never been investi- 

 gated, and there are practically no records. It is my intention 



^ " Kesperia Artaxerxes''' was described by Fabricius in 1793 from a draw- 

 ing of a specimen fi'om Arthur's Seat (c/. Nat. Lib. , xxxix. p. 245). 



2 " Diptera Scotica: iii. and v. —The Forth District, " Ann. S. N. H., 1903. 

 pp. 154-166, 212-226; 1904, pp. 26-33, 98-102; and 1906, pp. 154-161. 



^ [R. Henderson], Trans. N. H. Soc. Glasg., vi. (n.s.), pt. iii. (1903) 

 p. 338. Verrall, E?it. Mo. Mag., 1904, p. 224, and 1905, p. 112. Carter, 

 E. M. J/., 1905, p. 163, and 1907, pp. 110, 160. Evans, Ann. S. N. H., 

 1905, p. 217, and 1907, p. 54, E. M. M., 1908, pp. 207, 277; etc. 



^ Ann. S. iV. R., 1904, p. 193, and 1906, pp. 161, 241. Two others, 

 namely, CeratophyUus insularis and Typhlopsylla dasycnemus, have been 

 recorded by Mr Waterston; ih., 1906, pp. 212, 214. 



^ Halliday {Ent. Mag., 1836 and 1837) described 40 as British, and no 

 doubt there are quite half as many more. 



