riiii: LARGE coppEi; uuttekfly. 59 



I iitr<>(h«ti<>)i til Knt'iiiioldtii/, intlae following sentence: — " Morasses also 

 liave their peculiar insects. In this kind of district, in the Isle of Ely, has 

 been taken that scarce and beautiful butterfly, Li/idcna rin/anrcar, by a 

 Fellow of Trinity Colle.Lte, Canil)ridge," showing that e\en then the 

 nomenclature, as in use among British lepidopterists, was somewhat 

 mixed. 



Mr. C. W. Dale asserts that, after the capture of the specimens 

 mentioned as having been taken by Haworth and the Messrs. Skrimshire, 

 '• the next specimens were taken at Whittlesea Mere, by Thonuis 

 Speechly, an old boatman in my father's employ, in July, ISIO, and 

 subsequently by my father himself and the Messrs. _ Standish. It 

 appears to have occurred in great plenty, as several hundreds were 

 taken within the next ten years by the London collectors, who visited 

 AYhittlesea and Yaxley Meres during the month of July, for the sole 

 purpose of obtaining specimens. In 1H27, Mr. Haworth took fifty 

 s})ecimens in a single day in P>ardolph Fen, Norfolk ; a few also were 

 til ken at ]>enacre, in Suffolk.'"''-' 



In 1828, Stephens wrotef of this species as follows : — " This 

 splendid insect appears to l)e confined to the fenny counties of 

 Cambridge and Huntingdon, with the neighbouring ones of Suffolk 

 and Noi'folk, unless the account of its capture in Wales by Hudson be 

 admitted ; but this may probably be the following species (liiji/iot/idr), 

 which may, moreover, eventually prove synonymous with /.. di^i/iar. 

 In the ffrst two localities it appears to occur in great profusion, as 

 several hundi'ed specimens have been captured within these last ten 

 years by the London collectors, who have visited Whittlesea and 

 Yaxley INIeres during the month of July, for the sole purpose of 

 obtaining specimens of this insect, which is also stated to occur on the 

 coast of Suffolk, at I>enacre ; but that locality may. however, belong 

 to the next insect." 



It is very dubious for which of the Coppers Stephens" hijipothor 

 was meant. One would, on reading his comparison of it with 

 /,. ilisjHir, be inclined to agi'ee with him tliat it was an aberration of 

 the latter, " the female of lii/.iKit/ioi' dift'ering from that of //. dispar 

 in haxing the spots on the upper siirface of the anterior wings smaller, 

 and in having the entire disc of the posterior wings above dusky, 

 clouded with deeper spots, and without the fulvous nervures ; the 

 under surface has fewer and smaller spots than L. iJisino-." 



The general remarks that follow, however, tend to lead one to the 

 conclusion that it was an imported Continental species (like those of 

 r//)7/.v'/.s and riniauirac, which Stephens also describes). Of the insect 

 described under the name of Iiipjintlioi', Stephens writes : — " The 

 inferior size of the above insect, as well as the dift"erences in the 

 number and size of the ocellated spots on the lower surface of the 

 wings, and the colour of the upper surface of the inferior ones of the 

 female, combined with the circumstance that, amongst several 

 hundreds of L. dispar which have been taken at Whittlesea ^lere, not 

 one specimen occurred agreeing Avith the abo\e definition, seem to 

 point out the present insect as a different species. The male which I 

 possess was in the late Mr. Beckwith's collection, and the female is 



* British Butterflies, p. 47. 

 ^ Xilustratiuns of British Entomolofi ij , vol. i., p. 82. 



