266 THE ENTOxMOLOGlST. 



under side, and was very puzzling, though, as it turns out, 

 fairly accurate. Wailing till one of my party should pass 

 that way, but occasionally looking at it, she allowed the day 

 to slip away, and going to capture it in the evening — of 

 course it was gone. Then my sister, who has been familiar 

 with the habits and flight of our English butterflies from 

 early days, and has observed those of insects in Southern 

 Europe, brought me word that she had seen a butterfly 

 unlike any English one she knew, and more resembling, in 

 flight and general appearance, some which she had seen in 

 the South of France. I was still too incredulous to make a 

 search in the vicinity for the stranger, and did not come 

 across it accidentally in my rambles. However, on the 

 evening of October 17th, my housemaid brought me a collar- 

 box, with the information that a young labourer, living about 

 a quarter of a mile ofl", had caught a "bug" in a field at the 

 back of ])is house at dinner-time, and thought I should like 

 to have it. (Every insect is called a " bug," hereabouts.) 

 From long experience I expected a larva of Cossus ligniperda, 

 but on applying my ear to the box I heard a rustling of 

 wings ; and, opening it very carefully, beheld a fine specimen, 

 almost perfect, of Danais Archippus. 



We are an entomological household, and the excitement 

 generated amongst us by the sight of so grand an insect 

 fluttering in a gigantic cyanide bottle, to which it was at 

 once transferred, may be more easily imagined than described. 

 Upon setting the specimen the next morning I found a 

 scratch across the corner of the left-hand upper vving, and a 

 very slight rubbing of the upper surface, but that the lower 

 wings were still wrinkled, showing that it had not long 

 emerged from the chrysalis. Altogether, considering it had 

 been caught in a hat, and kept seven hours in a box before 

 it came into my hands, it may be considered in very good 

 condition. 



I have had the pleasure of showing the insect, soon after 

 capture, to Mr. Jenner Weir and Mr. Douglas, of H.M. 

 Customs, and of leaving a tolerably accurate drawing of it, 

 natural size, with the former gentleman. 



Considering the rumours mentioned above, I am inclined 

 to hope this beautiful insect may have become naturalised in 

 this district. 1 cannot understand this having been an 



