346 ISLA^^D LIFE part ii 



occurrence of some of tlie siipi^osed peculiar siDccies on the 

 continent. The list has now been revised by the Rev. Canon 

 Fowler, author of the best modern work on the British 

 Coleoptera, who has kindly furnished some valuable notes. 



For the Lepidoj^tera I first noted all the species and 

 varieties marked as British only in Staudinger's Catalogue 

 of European Lepidoptera. This list was carefully corrected 

 by Mr. Stainton, who weeded out all the species known by 

 him to have been since discovered, and furnished me with 

 valuable information on the distribution and habits of the 

 species. This information often has a direct bearing on the 

 probability of the insect being peculiar to Britain, and in 

 some cases may be said to exj)lain why it should be so. 

 For example, the larvae of some of our peculiar species of 

 Tineina feed during the winter, which they are enabled to 

 do owing to our mild and insular climate, but which the 

 severer continental winters render impossible. A curious 

 example of the effect this habit may have on distribution 

 is afforded by one of our commonest British species, 

 Elacliista rufocincrea, the lava of which mines in the leaves 

 of Holcus mollis and other grasses from December to 

 Marcli. This species, though common everywhere with 

 us, extending to Scotland and Ireland, is quite unknown in 

 similar latitudes on the continent, but ajDpears again in 

 Italy, the South of France, and Dalmatia, where the mild 

 winters enable it to live in its accustomed manner. 



Such cases as this afford an excellent illustration of those 

 changes of distribution, dependent probably on recent 

 changes of climate, which may have led to the restriction 

 of certain species to our islands. For should any change 

 of climate lead to the extinction of the species in South 

 Europe, where it is far less abundant than with us, we 

 should have a common and wide-spread species entirely 

 restricted to our islands. Other species feed in the larva 

 state on our common gorse, a plant found only in limited 

 portions of Western and Southern Europe ; and the 

 presence of this plant in a mild and insular climate such 

 as ours may well be supposed to have led to the pre- 

 servation of some of the numerous species which are or 

 have been dependent on it. Since the first edition was 



