18(19 ] 281 
Notes on the Lepidoptera inhabiting Rosshire. — Wishing to leara Bomething of 
tho Insect Fauna of the North of Scotland, I, in the beginning of June, 1868, 
transferred my Lares and Penates (to wit, nets, setting-boards, et id genus omne) 
to the picturesque parish of Contin, in the county of Ross ; and pitched my tent 
beside the birch-clad rock of Tor Achilty. Before beginning an enumeration of 
the Lepidoptera observed, a few words on the character of the country may not bo 
out of place, besides being of use to any future explorer. Taking the picturesque 
little Loch Achilty as a convenient centre, we find a series of rocky heath-covered 
hills sloping down on all sides to the lake. These hills are nearly to their summits 
clad with birch forests, but one, from its numerous oak trees, is appropriately named 
" the rock of the oaks," (Craig Darroch). To the north and south of the Loch run 
the rivers Conan and Blackwater, bordered by hills of the same nature as those 
surrounding the Lake. Nine miles to the north-east of Achilty lies the great dorae- 
shaped mass of Ben Wyvis ("the extraordinary Mountain"), famed for being one 
of tho few mountains in Britain that always possesses snow. Altogether the 
scenery is among the best in Scotland, and good scenery I think enhances con- 
siderably the pleasures of collecting. Few things are more enjoyable than tho 
"pipe " while watching the hills getting bluer and bluer in the twilight, and the 
shades of night slowly enveloping the sugared trees, while one thinks of all the 
rare beauties fast flying to the treacherous feast. The soil of the disti-ict is very 
sandy and rocky, and the climate dry and noted for its remarkable mildness. I 
was told by a French botanical friend that the place greatly resembled in appear- 
ance the Forest of Fontainebleau, a fact, which taken in connection with the 
occurrence of certain insects here and with the character that Mr. Stainton gives 
of Fontainebleau, is rather curious. What Mr. Stainton remarks in the " Annual " 
for 1868, is to the following effect : " that Fontainebleau, vrith its sandy soil and 
numerous rocks, is a particularly warm locality and that some insects occur here which 
are not again met with till the collector has proceeded 250 miles further towards the 
south." The insects I refer to are Acronycta megacephala, Macaria notata, &c., which 
seem to be found from the south nearly to the north of England, appearing again 
here in the north of Scotland, without (as far as our knowledge extends) inhabiting 
any intermediate localities. In connection with the appearance here of southern 
species, I may mention that I found, among plants, Rhamnus frangula, hitherto a 
doubtful native of Scotland (recorded from Ayrshire), and Fmnana hihernica, not I 
behave recorded from any locality in Britain north of Derbyshire ; and among land 
Molhtsca, Helix aculeata, Zonites excavatus, Pupa ringens, &c., none of which were 
supposed to occur so far north in Britain. 
Sugar proved very successful, especially in June (Mr. T. Blackburn's untiring 
ener-gy contributing greatly to this desirable result, while his pleasant company 
enlivened the time when waiting for the darkness that woitZdnoi come). Altogether 
59 species of Noctuina visited the sugar, as well as 13 other species of Lepidopterck 
(including Orgyia antiqua entangled by the wings). I also noticed a squirrel one 
day paying attention to the old sugar. Honeysuckle and heather blossom produced 
many species, and the burrows of tho goat moth a fev.'. 
In the following list I have mentioned every species (to the end of the Tortricina), 
as few, if any, of the insects of this northern county have been recorded previously : 
the Diumi and Nocturni are few in number as compared with succeeding groups. 
