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8. — On British Butterflies. 



By the Rev. C. M. Perkins, M.A. 

 [Read 14th March, 1878.] 



I HAVE been requested more tlian once by our Secretary to 

 prepare some paper on the subject of Entomology to read before 

 this Society ; but I have hitherto refrained, for the reason that I 

 feel my own knowledge to be so slight that I have little hope 

 either of saying anything that is not already known, or even of 

 putting in an interesting form to the majority of my audience the 

 little knowledge that I may possess. Had I been able to give this 

 subject the time I had hoped when I first joined this Society, 

 I should no doubt have been able to give you a far fuller list of 

 places where the various lepidopterous insects might be found in 

 this county ; but unfortunately, though my love for this branch of 

 science has not at all waned with time, yet I find years as they go 

 on leave me less opportunity of indulging my fancy and gratifying 

 my desires in this respect. I shall therefore first ask the indul- 

 gence of the more learned on the ground that I reluctantly read 

 this paper before them, while I shall be pleased if I can add one 

 iota of knowledge or implant any love for this engaging science 

 in any of our younger friends. 



From the wide range of Entomology I have chosen the " British 

 Butterflies " as my subject this evening, and will speak briefly of 

 each species with the view principally of pointing out, to the as 

 yet inexperienced collector, their favourite haunts, and indicating 

 localities in this neighbourhood where I have met with them. 



But, firstly, let me say that butterflies belong to the order of 

 insects called Lepidoptera, that they receive this title (which is 

 framed from two Greek words, meaning scales and wings) from the 

 fact that their wing-frames are covered with scales fitting over 

 each other, as the tiles of a roof ; and these scales, which amount in 

 number to hundreds of thousands on every butterfly, impart to it 

 that striking beauty which captivates alike the eye of youth and 

 age, for the very infant will stretch out his tiny hands to possess 

 it, and the adult, who is ever seeking out the beautiful, not 

 unfrequently places it in the foreground of some splendid work of 

 art which he copies from nature. Further, amongst the Lepidoptera 

 the butterfly belongs to that sub-division termed in science Bhopa- 

 locera, another compound Greek word meaning club-horned, because 

 one of the principal distinctions between the butterfly and moth 

 is the little knob which may be noticed at the tip of the antennae 

 or horns of the former. 



Many people imagine that the number of species of butterflies 

 in Great Britain is great ; but this is an error, which arises from 

 the fact of their mistaking a number of the brighter moths which 

 fly by day for them, for, while the species of moths approach 

 nearly 2,000, the butterflies on this island do not amount to 



