XXV. 



NOTES ON LEriDOrXERA OBSERVED IN WESTERN IIERTFORD- 

 SniRE IN 1897, 1898, AND 1899. 



By AExntTR Cottam, F.R.A.S. 



Communicated by A. E. Gibbs, F.L.S. 



Read at Watford, lOth April, 1900. 



The last notes of Lepidoptera which have been published in 

 the ' Transactions of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society ' 

 are those of Mr. S. H. Spencer, jun., of tlie insects observed in the 

 neighbourhood of Watford in 1896 (Vol. IX, p. 236). 



As I have been working this portion of the County during 

 the last three years, I have taken a few insects that, so far as 

 I have been able to ascertain, have not been recorded previously 

 for this County, besides others the capture of which should, I think, 

 be noted. 



During the last two years Mr. Aubrey C. Stoj^el has been my 

 usual companion when out collecting. He has been making 

 a careful list of all the Lepidoptera previously recorded in the 

 Notes and Lists published in the Society's ' Transactions ' as 

 having been taken in Hertfordshire, which list has been of great 

 assistance to me in preparing this paper. 



There is a list by Mr. Bowyer in Vol. V of the ' Tx-ansactions,' 

 p. 30, of Lepidoptera taken in the neighbourhood of Haileybury, 

 which includes several species that have not been taken on this 

 side of the County, as well as some which I am now able to record 

 for this district for the first time. 



My cousin, Mr. Philip J. Barrand, of Bushey Heath, has been 

 working there since March, 1897, and I have included in this paper 

 some of the insects taken by him. All recorded as taken at Bushey 

 Heath have been captured in Hertfordshire, but the locality is not 

 far from the Middlesex border. Some of his best captures have 

 been made by light with a moth-trap. 



The insects recorded as captured at Tring have been taken 

 either on the bank of the Grand Junction Canal, close to Tring 

 Station, or on the lower slopes of the chalk downs at Aldbury, and 

 all well within the County boundary. 



EHOPALOCERA.— Butterflies. 



Lyc(ena Corydon. — The Chalk-hill blue. — Mr. Gibbs has recorded 

 (Vol. VIII, p. 78) that this butterfly abounds at Lilley Hoo, but 

 it does not appear to be known that it is also usually abundant on 

 Aldbury Downs. I have taken it there every year fur the last four 

 years, and on the 2nd of Aiigust, 1899, it was out in myriads, the 



VOL. X. — PAUT V. 14 



