1302.] 37 



HISTORICAL NOTES ON PAPILIO MACHAON IN ENGLAND. 



BY C. W. DALE, P.E.S. 



This grand butterfly appears now to be confined to Wieken Fen, Cambridge- 

 shire, and Ran worth and other Broads, Norfolk. 



Last year one was taken at Castle Cary, Somerset. The editorial note to the 

 last (Ent. Mo. Mag., vol. xii, 2nd series, p. 172) sustains the idea of a small sporadic 

 immigration in 1900, as many specimens were taken and scattered over a large area. 

 The counties in which it formerly existed, and from all of which it has, appar- 

 ently, disappeared, are Dorsetshire, Somersetshire, Gloucestershire, Glamorganshire, 

 Hampshire, Surrey, Oxfordshire, Middlesex, Sussex, Kent, Essex, Suffolk, North- 

 amptonshire, Yorkshire, and Huntingdonshire. 



It was known to be a British species nearly two hundred years ago, as the 

 Rev. John Ray, in his " Historia Insectorum " (1710), records finding it in Sussex 

 and Essex, and that he found the caterpillar in Sussex feeding on Pimpinella sari- 

 fraga. Petiver also, in 1717, records it as being caught about London and in divers 

 counties in England ; he called it the Royal William. Wilkes also states that 

 this fine butterfly may be taken in meadows and clover fields about. Cookham, near 

 Westram, in Kent, and that on August 5th, 1748, he observed a female hovering 

 over some plants, which he found to be the meadow saxifrage, and discovered four 

 eggs just laid. The first brood appears in May, the second towards the end of July. 

 In " White's Natural History of Selborne " is a comparative view of the 

 Calendar of Selborne, kept by the Rev. Gilbert White, at Selborne, in Hampshire, 

 and William Markwick, Esq , at Catsfield, near Battle, in Sussex. In it we read 

 " Swallow-tailed Butterfly appears August 2nd —White ; April 20th, June 7th, last 

 seen August. 28th — Markwick. 1794." 



In the end of June, 1798, several larvae were found by the Rev. Dr. Abbott, 

 at Windlesham, near Bagshot, in Surrey; from these in the following August he 

 reared some splendid swallow-tails. It was also taken in that century by the Rev. 

 William Ray, to whom Mr. Harris dedicated his plate of the swallow-tail in 1766, 

 at Redland, near Bristol, in Gloucestershire, and at Middleton, in Yorkshire. 



Inhis"Lepidoptera Britannica," 1803, II n worth writes : " I know that Machaon 

 breeds near Beverley, in Yorkshire yet, and my brother-in-law, R. Scales, of Wal- 

 worth, near London, possesses a specimen of it. which was taken there about seven 

 years ago." 



Between the year 1800 and 1815 several were taken in Dorsetshire ; at Hinton 

 Martel, by the Rev. D. Storey ; at Charminster, by Mr. Garland ; at Wimborne, 

 Blandford, Hazlebury, Bryan, and Glanvilles Wootton, by my father, the Inst being 

 on August 17th, 3815. At Glanville's Wootton, in August, 1808, he took twelve 

 specimens in three consecutive days. They frequented chalk hills, and smelled 

 slrongly of mint. About the same time the Rev. C. Kingsley, LL.D., met with it 

 in great plenty in Cowslip Meadow, near Lymington, in Hampshire ; and it was 

 also taken in Glamorganshire, at Penclawdd and Llanghor, by J. D. Llewelyn, Esq. ; 

 and in Oxfordshire, by Mr. Stone. The Rev. M. Newman also met with it at West 

 Camel, and the Rev. R. Burney at Rympton, in Somersetshire. Mr. W. Skriinshire 

 took it in plenty at Wisbech, in Cambridgeshire ; and his brother, Dr. F. Skrim- 

 shire, near Peterborough, in Northamptonshire ; and it was also taken in great 

 plenty by my father at Whittlesea Mere in 1814. 



