164 

 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LEPIDOPTERA ROUND EXETER. 



By MR. EDWARD PARFITT. 



(Continued from page \2%.) 



The Purple Hair-streak, {Thecia Quercus:) this is a rare species in this 

 neighbourhood; I have only heard of one specimen being taken, and that in 

 Sir T. Acland's Park, by Mr. E. Norcombe, but I am of opinion that, 

 were the oak woods searched for it, there might be more taken, for we have 

 some considerable tracts of oak woods, such as Exmick Wood, and tlie woods 

 about Dunsford are mostly oak, so I think more might be taken than we 

 now anticipate, and, as I said before, I also think His Majesty the Emperor 

 might be found sailing about in the sunshine. Thecia Ruhi, (Green Hair- 

 streak:) this Butterfly may be taken in considerable numbers on Haldon, at 

 the back of Haldon House, the seat of Sir Laurence Palk; in August, 1850, 

 it was particularly plentiful there. The Common Copper Butterfly, {Lyccena 

 Phlceas:) this is not a very common insect about here, though many specimens 

 are to be taken in a season. I took a rather curiously marked variety in 

 Stoke Wood in 1851: the right anterior wing is almost white, except the 

 margins, which are paler than in other specimens, but not white like the 

 centre of the wing; the black spots too are unusually large on both the 

 anterior wings; the left anterior wing is much darker than in most specimens; 

 it is more suffused with black, so as to give it a dingy look; one dark 

 wing and the other light gives the fly a singular appearance. 



Folyommatus Argiolus, (Azure Blue,) is tolerably plentiful in some years, 

 but not near so common as the following, P. Alexis, (Common Blue;) this 

 you may see in most fields shut up for hay, flying about amongst the long 

 grass in May and June. This, though a common species here, is not near 

 so plentiful as it is in Norfolk; there I have seen it in great profusion, flying 

 about in the parks and hay-fields just before the hay is cut. T possess a 

 specimen taken last year, which I suppose to be a variety of P. Salmacis, 

 or is it Artaxerxes? if so the markings do not accord with the description in 

 the "Naturalist's Library." It is about the size of P. Artaxerxes, and has got 

 the markings on the anterior and posterior wings like that insect, except the white 

 spot on the middle of the anterior pair. The whole upper surface of the wings 

 is of a dusky umber colour, except the band of triangular fulvous spots on the 

 posterior margin: each triangular spot has a roundish black one at its base. 

 There is also a small light crescent-shaped spot of four spots nearest the tail 

 or anus; the two last, or those nearest the tail, are double, that is, the two 

 are joined together, which is not the case with any of the others — they are 

 decidedly distinct. The fringe on the wings is dusky, and the whole under 

 surface of the wings is precisely like the female of P. Alexis; the marking3 

 are exactly like that insect. Is it a variety of that species, or what is it? 



I had almost forgotten one of our finest insects, the Clouded Yellow, {Colias 

 edusa:) this beautiful butterfly is caught in some quantities at Exmouth, but. 



