later were unable to find the species in that neighbourhood ; if the 

 species ever did breed there it had disappeared, the chroniclers 

 of the later years of that century apparently having founded their 

 assertions not on their own observations, but on the records of 

 those of the seventeen-seventies. 



At just what date it was rediscovered is open to some doubt, but I 

 am inclined to think it must have been somewhere about 1820, and 

 what appears to be the first record we have of it is by John Curtis, 

 who, writing of the species, says : " It is not easy to conceive the 

 delight I experienced when a boy on finding the locality of the 

 Gipsy moth ; after a long walk I arrived at the extensive marshes of 

 Horning, in Norfolk, having no other guide to the spot than the 

 Myrica f/ale, and on finding the beds of that shrub, which grows 

 freely there, the gaily coloured caterpillars first caught my sight ; 

 they were in every stage of growth, some of them being as large as 

 a swan's quill ; I also soon discovered the moths, which are so 

 totally different in colours as to make a tyro doubt their being 

 legitimate partners ; the large loose cocoons were likewise very 

 visible, and on diligent search I also found bundles of eggs." I 

 have quoted Curtis soiuewhat fully as his account of his findmg the 

 species gives a better idea of its abundance than would be conveyed 

 by any words of ray own. 



In or about the year 1830 the Rev. Jenkins found the moth very 

 plentifully in the fens about Whittlesea Mere, but Henry Doubleday 

 was unable to find it there in 1836, he, however, found the larvae 

 swarming at Yaxley Fen in 1839, and it was still common there in 

 1846. In 1845 Frederick Bond found it abundantly at Holuie and 

 Ramsey Fens, and at about the same time the Rev. Jenyns met 

 with it at Burwell Fen. These are the latest definite records of 

 which I am aware and it appears to be fairly certain that it dis- 

 appeared entirely from the fen lands about 1850, and thus closes 

 the second phase in its British history. But it will be noted that 

 in those days it was distributed abundantly over a wide district, far 

 more so than one would imagine could be the case as a result of any 

 artificial introduction. 



For some years after this period O. ilispar appears to have been 

 absent as a wild species, but numbers were being bred in confine- 

 ment, and are so even to the present day, in the fond belief that 

 they are the descendants of those old "fen" insects, a belief in which 

 to say the least of it, there is reason for very considerable doubt. 

 It is also a point for consideration whether the large numbers that 

 are known to have been reared artificially, have or have not any 

 bearing upon the records of wild captures that have been from time 

 to time recorded of more recent years, of which the following may 

 serve as examples. In 1870 our late member, Major Ficklin, 

 captured a female at rest on a tree trunk in the New Forest ; and a 

 Mr. W. Holland, a male flying in a wood near Odiham, Hants. In 

 1872, Dr. F. D. Wheeler found the larvje on hawthorn at Monks 



