124 THE entomologist's record. 



and less than a dozen were seen, mostly worn and weather-beaten, for 

 there were scarcely two consecutive fine days. In 1879 the weather 

 was still worse, and L. arion was scarcer than ever, while in 1880 

 only two were obtained, and two or three more seen. For the four 

 years, 1881-4, not one has been seen in the Gloucestershire district that 

 I have been able to trace." 



But six years before the above was penned, Mr. Marsden had 

 written {Ent., xii., p. 221, 1879) a note, relative to the rapid disap- 

 pearance of the species in the Cotswolds, and his report was so gloomy 

 that collectors ]3ractically ceased to go there for the species. This 

 respite gave the butterfly another chance, for, in 1890 {K. M. M., 

 xxvi., p. 214), Ave find Mr. Goss " pleased to be able to report that 

 L. arion is not, as I feared, extinct on the Cotswold Hills. Yesoerday 

 (June 24th), in one of the localities, where I caught L. arion in 1877, 

 I took three specimens, all males ; of these one was worn, and two 

 had apparently recently emerged from the chrysalis. On visiting a 

 second locality, some four miles from the one last mentioned, I was 

 disappointed at not finding a specimen. To-day I have succeeded in 

 taking two male specimens, both fresh, in a new locality, some two or 

 three miles distant from the former ones." Since then, the gentlemen 

 who wish to "renew" or "enlarge" their series have given the 

 "Blues" on the Cotswold Hills a i^rrible doing. How local the species 

 is in its haunts in these hills is explained by Mr. Merrin, who says 

 that "the spot most frequented by them was, however, partly shel- 

 tered by a stone wall. The same locality subsequently yielded as 

 many as were taken on the first day, while all the district round 

 about, though much of it is of the same character, was perfectly clear 

 of them. This tends to show that the species is very local. On 

 another spot, some miles distant, but of a similar broken character, 

 the species was also found ; the area, however, being still more con- 

 tracted." So regularly have the collectors visited the Cotswolds 

 during the last few years, that the insect has become exceedingly 

 scarce again. 



In 1893, Mr. Goss recorded (K. 21. M., xxix., p. 190) the capture 

 of the species in North Cornwall, and Mr. McLachlan purposely 

 omitted the locality in the record of these captures. The insect is 

 now confined to the hills and coast of Gloucestershire, Devonshire 

 and Cornwall, and we have no doubt our collectors will pursue it 

 there until its last south-westerly haunt has been reached. Mr. Goss, 

 at a recent meeting of the Entomological Society of London, 

 recounted, with some warmth, the injury done to the species last season 

 by the late Major Still and a London collector. 



At the meeting of the City of London Entomological Society, held 

 on June 16th last, it was stated by Captain Thompson that a party of 

 nine was visiting a village in one of the South-western counties for the 

 purpose of aiding in the extermination of this species. Unfortunately, 

 we had previously heard of this, and that some of these visitors were 

 making the journey an annual institution. 



The average educated man will naturally ask, what are the mar- 

 vellous scientific results obtained from the expenditure of so much 

 enthusiasm and ardour, for he will suppose that the scientific result 

 which attracts the same men to the same locality, for the same 

 insect, year after year, must bear some commensurate importance 



