March, 1887. J 217 



IS APORIA CRATJEGI EXTINCT IN ENGLAND? 

 BY HERBERT QOSS, F.L.S. 



Mr. Dale's enquiry in the February number of this Magazine, aa 

 to the occurrence at the present day of Aporia craiaegi in the south- 

 east of England, induces me to raise the question of 'whether this 

 species is dying out, not only in the south-east, but in all parts of this 

 country. During the last ten years it has, to my knowledge, dis- 

 appeared from all the localites in the New Forest, and in Monmouth- 

 shire, where it was formerly found in abundance. 



The counties in which Aporia cratcegi formerly occurred, and from 

 all of which it has, apparently, now disappeared, are Kent, Sussex, 

 Hampshire, Huntingdonshire, Northamptonshire, Herefordshire, Mon- 

 mouthshire, and G-lamorganshire. I do not say that the species has 

 Jiever been taken in other southern, western, and midland counties ; 

 but those above named are the counties where the species most regu- 

 larly and constantly occurred. 



Kent. — It is well known that less than thirty years ago this 

 species was plentiful in various parts of this county, especially about 

 Wye, Ashford, Strood, Rochester, and the district between Heme 

 Bay and Canterbury. In 1864, an old botanical friend of mine having 

 informed me that, twenty years previously, when he resided at Wye, 

 Aporia cratcegi was the commonest butterfly in the neighbourhood of 

 that place, I went with my father, on his recommendation, to stay 

 there in the middle of June of that year. For upwards of three weeks 

 we diligently explored the country about Wye, Ashford, Westwell, 

 Chilham, Canterbury, Sturry, and Heme Bay ; but during the whole 

 of this period we never caught, or even saw, a specimen of this species, 

 ! which I was assured by Mr. Robert Dombrain, then " reading " with 

 a clergyman at Wye, had disappeared from the district since 1859. 

 In lieu of Aporia cratcegi, I had to content myself with a series of 

 Scoria dealbata, then considered a much greater rarity than at the 

 present day. 



Sussex. — Mr. Jenner Weir has often told me that A. cratcegi 

 used to occur in great numbers near Kcymer, and elsewhere, in Sussex, 

 many years ago, but that he had only seen one specimen of it in the 

 county since 1840.* 



Hampshire. — My earliest capture of A. crat<rgi was made when 

 I was a boy, on my first vi^it to Lyndhurst, as long ago as June, 18(32. 



* See Proc. Eut. Soc. Load., 1S84, p. 5. 



