SOME LEPIDOPTERA OF THE " FOURSHIRE STONE " DISTRICT. 211 



in old quarries, all of which ought to be carefully searched for 

 Lycaena arion, which is certainly found still in some of those nearer to 

 Cheltenham, and was, and probably is, a fairly frequent species in the 

 neighbourhood of Lower Guiting, where the late Rev. Jos. Greene used 

 to take it years ago. Nor must it be forgotten that this was one of 

 the last localities where Cyaniru fieDiiaryits was taken in England, and 

 probably nobody has ever really looked for it since Mr. Greene left 

 Guiting, for it would require continuous and persistent looking tor, 

 so many are the suitable places for its occurrence. We are, I think, 

 apt to put the disappearance of C. sfiniavf/iiH on a par with that of 

 VIiri/sophatiKs dinpar, whereas there is really nothing parallel in the 

 two cases. The latter species was only found in the fen-lands, most 

 of which were drained about the time of its disappearance, it was 

 either peculiar to England, or, if co-specific with (;'. ratilim, 

 belonged to a very local species, and one which is very scarce in most 

 of its habitats in Western Europe ; whereas (J. wmiarym was much 

 more widely distributed in England, is by no means particular as to 

 its haunts, and is common, often very common, over most of Europe, 

 even up to the coasts nearest to our own, and there is no assignable 

 reason for its extinction, and frankly very insufficient reason to suppose 

 that it really is extinct. For although England is comparatively rich 

 in collectors, still what large tracts of country there are absolutely 

 unworked, how completely isolated a country collector often is, except 

 in a tew favoured (?) spots, and how impossible it is for one man (or 

 boy, or perhaps lady) to work thoroughly a large tract of country for 

 an inconspicuous species, especially when it is considered that most of 

 our more isolated collectors are in other respects busy people, whose 

 time for collecting is very limited, and who as a rule have probably 

 more time for night work than for hunting in the day, and that most 

 of our town workers have to take a day oft" when they can. If we add 

 to all this the fact (and it is a fact) that to many entomologists 

 (lepidopterists at any rate) collecting is the merest hobby, and that 

 enthusiasts are few, I think it will seem clear that the evidence for the 

 extinction of C. semiari/ns in England is really of the flimsiest, 

 although it has almost certainly left some of its ancient haunts, 

 those for instance in the neighbourhood of Birmingham, for 

 which I, for one, am not inclined to blame it. I doubt for example 

 whether a net has ever been seen in its old Guiting haunts in all 

 the years that have elapsed (about 50 I think) since Mr. Greene left 

 the neighbourhood. Certainly, since I have known Bourton-on-the- 

 Water, which is only some four miles from Guiting, I have never seen 

 a net, except my own, in the neighbourhood, nor do I know of a 

 lepidopterist nearer than Broadway ; and I have never been at the 

 place myself at the time and under weather conditions that would make 

 a search possible ; further, I have no reason whatever to suppose that 

 the same set of circumstances, and the same line of reasoning, do not 

 equally apply to scores, if not hundreds, of other English localities. 

 Until we can assert that all possible localities have been thoroughly 

 worked, we are surely generalising from insufficient data when we 

 assert the total extinction of such species as C. semiarifus, or imagine 

 that Everes argiades is only to be found in two localities. Outside a 

 radius of some 50 miles from London, and a much smaller one from 

 some of our large towns, notably Liverpool and Birmingham, the only 



