﻿52 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Neuroptera. 



Megalomus Jiirtus. One specimen. As it is a female, it does not- 

 give much assistance towards identification in its anal 

 structures, but it is more like the northern hirtus than the 

 southern tortricoides . 



Kinp;ston-on-Tliames: February, 1915. 



THE BUTTEKFLIES OF THE BUCKS. CHILTERNS. 

 By H. Rowland-Brown, M.A., F.E.S. 



(Continued from p. 30.) 



8. Agriades thetis, v. Rott. {=hellargus, v. Rett.). I had 

 always supposed this species to be extinct in the Chilterns, or, 

 at all events, in that part of the range then known to me, until 

 in June, 1900, I came across a small colony on a piece of ground 

 less than an eighth of an acre in extent. Being abroad that 

 year I did not revisit the spot at the normal time of the second 

 emergence, but I have done so both in spring and in autumn 

 many times since ; though never again have I been fortunate 

 enough to repeat the experience (cj:>. ' Entomologist's Record,' 

 vol. xii. p. 349). 



Writing to me on December 30th, 1900, Mr. Peachell, who 

 was then living at High Wycombe, says : '' Re P. bellargus, it is 

 curious that we have never found the species in this neighbourhood 

 till the present year." Mr. Spiller informs me that Mr. Hatton, of 

 Postcombe, took a series in a cbalk-pit somewhere between this 

 point and mid-Bucks., but that he too had since visited the 

 locality without result. Just over the county border, in Oxford- 

 shire, the Rev. J. W. B. Bell discovered the species in September, 

 1899, at Pyrton, near Watlington. But Mr. Spiller, who recently 

 searched the locality given (' Entomologist's Record,' vol. xiv. 

 p. 51), did not observe it; and probably the attempt to extend 

 westward had failed there also. But at no very distant date it 

 must have pervaded the range, for the Rev. H. H. Crewe records 

 it from Drayton-Beauchamp ; the Rev. Joseph Greene from 

 Halton. In 1900, also, it seems to have reached thus far, as Mr. 

 N. C. Rothschild writes ('Entomologist,' vol. xxxiii. p. 352) that 

 " it occurs about two miles from Tring, just beyond the Hert- 

 fordshire border, though it is always rare." Later search of 

 these localities appears to have been fruitless. It remains to 

 hope that under favourable conditions A. thetis (if that be the 

 true specific name, which I doubt) may once more be re- 

 established on a terrain apparently so well adapted to its natural 

 history. 



Earliest seen, June 9th, 1900; a week later the females 



