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JOURNAL OF VARIATION. 



Vol. VIII. No. 6. August 1st, 1896. 



The Gradual Decadence of Lycaena arion. 



By J. W. TUTT, P.E.S. 



Some collectors tell us that our local butterflies are becoming rarer 

 each year, because the seasons have recently been so unfavourable. Such 

 forget that most of the species of British butterflies have been cut oft" 

 from the Continent for several thousand years, that unfavourable 

 seasons have recurred again and again, that such insects as Chri/so- 

 j)/iauus (Uspar and Li/raoia arion were abundant sixty years ago, and 

 that their extermination is a very recent matter, and requires explana- 

 tion. We do not wish to suggest that unfavourable climatic condi- 

 tions do not influence insect life, we know that they do ; but we do 

 suggest that unfavourable climatic conditions, which have allowed an 

 insect like Lycaena arion. to exist in tolerable abundance for many 

 thousands of years, did not rapidly exterminate it, say at Barnwell 

 Wold in the " fifties," at Bolt Tail in the " sixties," in certain 

 parts of the Cotswolds in the " seventies," and leave it all this time 

 in comparative abundance in its retired haunts in Cornwall ; and we 

 further suggest that this particular species was exterminated in its 

 old quarters, in regular order, as its haunts became known to, and 

 regularly visited by, collectors. 



The history of this species in Britain will, we doubt not, be 

 interesting to those entomologists to whom libraries containing the 

 works of old authors are not readily available. 



LeAvin {History of British Insects, 1795) writes : — " This species is 

 but rarely met with in England. It is on the wing in the middle of 

 July, on high chalky lands, in difterent parts of the kingdom, having 

 been taken on Dover Clifts, Marlborough Downs, the hills near Bath, 

 and Clifden in Buckinghamshire." Donovan (Natural History of 

 Ihitish Insects, 1796) writes : — " Papilio arion is a very scarce insect 

 in this country, and it does not appear to be much more common in 

 any other part of Europe, as Fabricius only says, ' Habitat in Europas 

 pratis.' Mr. Lemon, a collector of eminence, some years since met 

 with it in England." In these early days, the apparent rarity of 

 all but the most common insects, was due to ignorance of the distri- 

 bution of the various species. 



Stephens {Illustrations of Brit. Knt., vol. i., pp. 87-88, 1828) 

 writes : — " An insect of great rarity, found on commons and in 

 pastures in the beginning of July ; it was taken by the late Dr. 

 Abbott near Bedford, in the Mouse's Pasture, where Mr. Dale caught 



