112 LEPIDOPTEROLOGIE COMPARÉE 



equally abundant on the mosses, and at Morecambe Mr. J. Arkle 

 confirms Mr. W. Prest's observation made on Thorne Waste, 

 Yorkshire, that the species, wherever found, is unaccompanied by 

 its otherwise common congener C. pamphïlus. On the Holker 

 mosses, hereabouts, Mr. B. Crabtree discovered it on the wing in 

 1896 as early as May 30th. In mid-Lancashire Mr. J. A. Jackson 

 reports it from GuU Moss, Garstang {Lancashire Natiiralisl). 

 Obliterated from the map among the vast hives of industry in 

 the centre and towards the south, Simondswood, Lmdon Moss, 

 and Chat Moss reduced to a bare 300 acres since the days when 

 the first railway in England was thrown across its shiftmg bogland, 

 still keep their colonies of pkiloxenus. While crossing the 

 Cheshire line at Carrington Moss (reported extinct there now), it 

 develops in Delamere Forest between Northwich and Chester its 

 finest actual form. The upper side of the maies in depth of colour 

 nearly approaches typical tiphon; the under side is more pronoun- 

 ced in marking and ocellation and the insect is often larger than 

 the ordinary pkiloxenus. Mr. J. Arkle of Chester, writmg 

 in 1901 in the Entonwlogïst (Vol. XXXVII, p. 257) mentions 

 that he found no less than four davus {sic) localities in the forest... 

 " there ought to be five localities, but now the âfth has long 

 since been removed by over collecting. " And, in 191 2, it seems 

 as though the butterfly had disappeared, or nearly so, from a like 

 cause from the remaining four. Mr. C. F. Johnson, however, 

 informs me that it still haunts Abbots Moss thereabouts, and 

 " Delamere " phïloxenus are at ail events not infrequently adver- 

 tised in our amateur's exciiange lists; s*o that it is to be hoped that 

 the species may survive until such time as the forest is converted 

 into a " Nature Reserve ", with others of our most cherished 

 hunting grounds. 



" The moss, where it occurs ", writes Mr. Arkle {in litL), " like 

 other examples in the Delamere Forest district appears to owe its 

 origin to a subsidence. This is evidenced by the partly submerged 

 stumps of trees hère and there over the moss, one of w^hich is 

 shown in the fore-ground of the picture " (cp. Illustrations of 



