Variegated Bramble from Dunfanaghy, County DonegalAuthor(s): Nora FisherSource: The Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 2, No. 11 (Sep., 1929), p. 226Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25531697 .

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226 The Irish Naturalists' Journal. [Vol. IT.

THE GREAT PINE SAWFLY (SIREX GIGAS L.). Not only is this fine insect now breeding all over Ireland, but its

numbers are probably still being increased by importation, as the following quotation from a letter I have received from James V. J. Dillon, Esq., of

Ballaghadereen, Co. Mayo, clearly shows :?" The specimen was found by me quite near to a timber shed into which a considerable consignment. of Baltic timber had just been put."

National Museum, Dublin. A. W. STELFOX.

TRICHONISCUS ROSEUS AT TWIN ISLANDS, BELFAST. While waiting to photograph a steamer from Queen's Island shipyard

going out on her trial trip last July, I turned over some planks lying a few feet above high water mark and found that the Rosy Woodlouse had reached even the made ground far below Harland & Wolff's shipyard. First found in some shell marl, I sent Dr. R. ?. Scharff, late Chief Keeper, Natural

History Museum, Dublin, from near Portaferry, it has now a wide if very local distribution in Northern. Ireland. Its favourite habitat seems to be under propagatory boxes which gardeners leave on paths outside hothouses, especially if they are cinder paths. This tiny Isopod is easily recognised by its beautiful rosy colour with a bright orange line down the middle of the

back.

Belfast. R. J. WELCH.

PYRAM1DULA RUPESTRIS (DRAP.) ON ANTRIM COAST.

The tiny Rock Snail, the Helix rupestris of old, is extremely local in N.E. Ireland, and until late years had been recorded only from the chalk cliffs at Garron Point. A few years ago Mr. A. W. Stelfox, M.R.I.A., and the writer found it in tufts of moss on 'both basalt and chalk on the hill

slopes beside the quarry at Ballygally Head, and afterwards at two locali ties near Hill's Port on the Gobbins Cliff path, and very local at south end of the Sallagh Braes. In August this year while collecting at the three chalk outliers on the slopes under the cliff range above Drumnagreah

House, between Ballygally and Glenarm, I found it in some abundance. The dark chocolate-coloured shells were in all stages of growth, both on

the rock-surfaces and among the rocky talus below. Its associates were

Hygromia hispida var. hispidosa, and Pupa cylindracea. The small shells of this species are seen with difficulty on dark rock surfaces, but show

clearly on the white face of our Antrim Chalk. Even where they do occur

they are in small local patches.

Belfast. R. J. WELCH.

-o

BOTANICAL SIFTINGS. VARIEGATED BRAMBLE FROM DUNFANAGHY,

COUNTY DONEGAL.

During our stay at Dunfanaghy in July of this year my cousin and I did quite a lot of field botanizing, and one day while collecting on a rough hillside near the road to Falcarragh I had the good fortune to find a small bramble beautifully variegated. One spray of leaves was entirely yellow.

The plant

did not appear to be abnormal in any other respect, and was not

growing" in darkness, which might have accounted for the lack of colouring. Most of the leaves were only bordered with yellow, but a few, as previously described, were pure yellow-white. My cousin and I both examined the plant carefully, but refrained from disturbing it in any way. We also found the rare sweet-scented Orchis in profusion on Horn Head peninsula, just opposite

Dunfanaghy, and another flower like a Gentian, which we were unable to

identify, grew sparingly on the grassy downs at the back of Horn. Head House.

Greenisland. NORA FISHER.

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