CRABRO PUBESCENS, SHUCK., AND INERMIS, THOMS. 13 
is no scarcity of plantain in the south of England; all the same, 
it is not unreasonable to suggest that the colonies of cinxia which 
survived into what we may call the entomological-historical 
period may have been wiped out finally by starvation in an 
abnormally dry and prolific season. The disappearance of WM. 
athalia in Bucks, for example, at least seems to be coincident with 
the growing up of the underwood in the Chiltern forests, and the 
extinction of the food plant Melampyrum pratense. Outside the 
Isle of Wight, cinxia is known to have inhabited within the first 
half of the nineteenth century, the New Forest at Brockenhurst 
(J. C. Dale); the cliffs of St. Margaret’s Bay (W. O. Hammond) ; 
and, according to the quotation in Stainton (vol. i, p. 44), 
Peterborough and Stowmarket, though, already in Samouelle’s 
time (‘ Useful Compendium,’ 1824) it is recorded “‘ very rare in 
Britain.”” Assuming the identification to be correct, these 
localities would represent the last strongholds on the mainland of 
a butterfly, once perhaps as widely spread in the South of 
England, at all events, as it is to-day in the North of France. 
The Rev. J. F. Dawson, writing of his discovery of cinxia in 
Loudoun’s Magazine—the passage is transferred bodily both by 
Stainton and Newman—mentions that the larva is specially 
subject to attack from Silpha obscura and S. tristis, and the imago 
from ‘‘a large spider.’’ As cinaia has held its own in or near 
the locality visited by Mr. Dawson in May, 1844, alone of all its 
habitats, and also in view of Mr. Wheeler’s definite conclusion 
that the species has few parasitic enemies, it cannot be supposed 
that the shrinkage of this Fritillary in England is due to the 
onslaughts of hostile insects. I may repeat here, however, that 
I have found quite the contrary to be the case with British 
reared M. aurinia, taken. wild in the larval state; while I have 
found M. didyma in one, at least, of its localities a constant prey 
to ichneumons. When I was last at Bérisal in July, 1907, I 
frequently came across pupz suspended from the overhanging 
ledges of rocks by the wayside between the Lycidas-haunted 
Second Refuge and the Ganter Bridge. Quite 50 per cent. of the 
pupze observed bore unmistakable signs of ichneumon attack ; 
which fact, however, did not prevent the butterfly from being 
extremely common as the month proceeded. 
Harrow Weald. December 7th, 1915. 
CRABRO PUBESCENS, Suucx., AND INERMIS, Tuxoms., 
WITH NOTES ON OTHER BRITISH CRABRONIDA. 
By R. C. L. Prerxins; M.A., D.Sc., F.Z.S. 
TsrovueH the kindness of the Rev. F. D. Morice and Messrs. 
E. B. Nevinson and A. H. Hamm I have been able to examine a 
