132 CAPTURE OF ARGYNNIS APHRODITE. 



this specimen of Arg. Aphrodite were anything more than the 

 usual sexual distinction of Arg. Paphia. I mention this cir- 

 cumstance in order to show that Mr. Walhouse was not at 

 first aware of the prize he had taken, and therefore can hardly 

 be suspected of having been actuated by the false feeling, 

 which might induce a dishonest person to pretend to have 

 been the discoverer of a new British species. 



But acquitting these gentlemen (as we do entirely) of any- 

 thing like wilful misinformation, may we not suppose that 

 they have fallen into a mistake, and have inadvertently allow- 

 ed a foreign specimen to gain admission among their British 

 ones ? This is a fair question, and desei'ves consideration. — 

 Mr. James Walhouse is now in India, and cannot conveni- 

 ently be examined in the matter. On his leaving this country 

 his collection of insects remained in the possession of his bro- 

 ther, Mr. Moreton Walhouse. Now I have narrowly cross- 

 examined this gentleman as to the possibility of a foreign 

 specimen having found its way into their collection of native 

 insects ; and he assures me, in reply, that they possessed no 

 foreign insects whatever, till long after the time when Arg. 

 Aphrodite was taken. And, what is more to the pui'pose, 

 Mr. Moreton Walhouse informs me, that although he was not 

 in company with his brother at the capture of Arg. Aphrodi- 

 te, he yet himself saw the specimen as soon as it was brought 

 home, while the wings were yet limber, and before the spe- 

 cimen was set. Both gentlemen also were immediately aware 

 of the great dissimilarity of the insect to any other with which 

 they were acquainted, though they knew not what to make of 

 it. Under these circumstances, therefore, I cannot withhold 

 my own belief of the fact, that the individual specimen of 

 Ai^g. Aphrodite now before me, was actually taken at Ufton 

 Wood, as above stated. 



But next comes the question of importation ; in answer to 

 which it is sufficient to state that Ufton Wood is situated in 

 a thinly -populated part of the country, remote from any port 

 or large mercantile town, a spot, therefore, extremely unlikely 

 to have been the depository of an insect accidentally trans- 

 mitted from abroad among articles of foreign produce. 



Lastly, as Arg. Aphrodite is a native of North America, 

 (and not, I believe, of the European continent), the notion 

 that the specimen had, either by accident or design, made its 

 way across the Atlantic, and settled down, in a state of good 

 preservation, as nearly as may be in the centre of our own 

 island, is too improbable to be seriously entertained for a 

 moment. 



I regret that Mr. Walhouse omitted to record the precise 



