THK LAKCtE COri'EU BUTTEKFLY. 63 



me that they came out of an old cabinet called the ' Kentish Cabinet," 

 and were said to have been taken near Faversham. I had a mah- 

 and a female from the late Mr. Latham, which were from Cai)t. 

 Lindegren's cabinet, whence, probably, all the supposed British 

 specimens came.' "f This is all I can find relating to Kentish speci- 

 mens of ( '/ni/sdji/nnnis dispay. 



Some of the impossibilities I'elating to the records of the occur- 

 rence of this species may be mentioned. We have already stated 

 that Donovan considered that specimens were taken in Scotland, whilst 

 llaworth records it as having been taken formerly in Wales by the cele- 

 lii-a,ted botanist, Hudson. Mr. .1. I). Hodgkinson, of I.'reston, states 

 in the Kiitniiioloiiisfs Wccldii I iitclliiinicfr, vol. iv., p. 10 (iH.'iH). that 

 he saw a specimen *• in Cumberland," that he took " a very deliberate 

 look at it and lost it after all."' This set the ball rolling, for, in the 

 same Mag., p. 181. Mr. \V. ' Winter, of Ranworth, says: "This 

 species has again appeared in the fens here ; I saw four yesterday, 

 but missed them all." This was on June 19th, 1858. One is 

 recorded {Kntom., vol. vi., p. 221) as having been seen on Hackney 

 Marshes. I doubt whether any one of these has a suspicion of 

 probability in it. 



For very many years it was fondly supposed that we had this 

 fine species all to ourselves, as it was well known that Duponchel's 

 (i., 18, H-6) and IJoisduval's (IctDH's, 10, 1-8) figures, described 

 under Hawortli's name, were from tJritish specimens ; but when 

 Staudinger's Cataloii ilfr Li'piilojj., etc., was published in 1871, it was 

 found that, although ( '. (Uspar was confined to Phigland, yet it was 

 only a form of a species well distributed over the Continent. This 

 latter was the rutilux of Werneburg (Btr., i., p. 891), the hipjjot/ioi', 

 of Hubner (figs. 852-4), Ochsenheimer (1, 2, 88), Godart (1, 9 sec. 5 

 10, sec. 8), and Freyer (127). It has been captured in " P'rance, 

 (lermany, South-Eastern Europe (citr. Graeca), Bithynia, Armenia 

 and the Altai." Kirby also considers the type confined to Flngland. 



The var. rutilus, which occurs on the Continent of Europe, is 

 diagnosed by Staudinger as being smaller, with smaller spots ; but, 

 as the Ik'itish specimens of dispar vary greatly in size, and some are 

 certainly not larger than large nitilKs, some other distinction was 

 necessary. This was provided Ijy Mr. Howard Vaughan, who drew 

 attention to the mucli broader hind marginal orange band on the 

 underside of the hind-wings in British specimens of ( '. dispar, when 

 compared with var. iKtiliis. 



Lang says that all the Continental specimens which he has seen 

 "belong to the var. rutilua, and are so distinct that there ought not 

 to be any confusion between them and the true typical form once 

 taken in England." He further adds : " The most distinctive feature 

 of nitilus, however, is the narrowness of the orange band on the 

 underside of the hind-wings, near the hind-margin. I have examined 

 a great number of specimens of nitilits, and also of dispar, with the 

 object of fixing upon some constant character by which they may be 

 differentiated, and have never seen a specimen of rKtiliis with the 

 hind-marginal band so broad and so well defined as it always appears 

 in dispar. I am, therefore, inclined to look upon this character as 

 diagnostic"! 



+ British Jintter flics, p. 46. : llhopalocera Europae, p. iil. 



