1901 ] 61 



distributed throughout the County, and is, in some seasons, common 

 in certain localities, such as ISywell AVood, Yardle_y Chase, and 8alcey 

 Forest. 



Thecia 2)runi^ I;., the most local and interesting species of tbo 

 genus Thccla is, in some seasons, abundant in woods near Kettering 

 and other places in the County, but, with the exception of a few 

 localities in North Buckinghamshire, and in Huntingdonshire, and in 

 other neighbouring Counties, it is unknown elsewhere in the United 

 Kingdom. According to my experience, it is fond of settling on the 

 ilowers of the Privet {L'ujmtrum vidgare) and the Wayfaring Tree 

 (Fiburnum lantana). Mr. Kaj'^e says it is also partial to the flowers 

 of Valerian. 



Thecia betulcB, L,, is also common in some seasons in many places 

 in the County, more especially in the larval state. 



LycoBna avion, L.,* was formerly plentiful in rough pastures 

 adjoining Barnwell Wold, but it disappeared nearly forty years ago, 

 after the exceptionally wet summer of 1860, and is apparently extinct 

 in the County. As is w^ell know^n, it still occurs, somewhat sparingly, 

 in the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, and is in some seasons abundant 

 in a few places in Devon and Cornwall. 



Lyccena acis, L., formerly occurred in many places in the County, 

 and ISywell AVood is given as a locality by Messrs. Hull and Tomalin. 



Nemeohius lucina, L., occurs near Towcester, and in Barnwell 

 AVold, and I have found it commonly in many of the woods of the 

 County. 



Hesperia pajiiscios, !Fb., sometimes occurs commonly in many 

 woods in the neighbourhood of Rockingham and Kettering, also in 

 Whittlebury Forest, Yardley Chase, and in other woods throughout 

 the County. It is, however, extremely local, and I have found it 

 abundantly in one wood, and entirely absent from an adjoining one. 

 It also occurs in a few woods in Huntingdonshire, Rutlandshire, and 

 Lincolnshire, and has been reported from certain localities in Suffolk, 

 but it is probably nowhere so plentiful as in this County. 



Pampliila comma, I;., has been recorded from Barnwell AVold by 

 Mr. T. H. Briggs, and from the same locality by Messrs. Hull and 

 Tomalin. 



* Mr. W. Edwards, in bis Notes in the .Journal of tho Northamptonshire Natural History 

 Society, No. 47, September, l,s;il, says :— " This rare and local butterfly was formerly plentiful in 

 Barnwell Wold on wild heathy land, where the wild thyme was abundant. Some years back 

 the whole was burjit u]), destroying the fond-plant, and r.ow not a vestige of wild thyme is 

 left."— H. G. 



