222 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ENTOMOLOGY OF 

 NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 



By Claude Morley, F.E.S., &c. 



Is there no one in the whole of broad Northamptonshire who 

 collects Moths and Butterflies ? Nay, this cannot be, in view 

 of the existence of the Northampton and of the Peterborough 

 Natural History Societies. Let him arise then and awake to 

 the fact that he can make for himself a name — not a great one, 

 but that of an authority upon a subject within a limited area ; 

 and who's is more ? There is, says my friend Mr. C. G. Barrett 

 (Ent. Mo. Mag. 1897, p. 193), no list of the Lepidoptera of 

 Northants. In these deplorable circumstances, may I be per- 

 mitted to place a few of my schoolboy reminiscencies upon record ? 

 I have never publicly acknowledged my obligations to William 

 T. Hill, of Peterborough, for his good fellowship in the early 

 days of my entomology — the days, as Green says, when every- 

 thing is rare. Mr. Hill could, doubtless, tell far more of the 

 Lepidoptera of his neighbourhood than I, but unfortunately, as 

 a wag recently remarked, he has " degenerated " from a buggist 

 to an editor, and now, I fear, has deserted his ancient love of 

 things crawling. This being so, I mention, with the keenest 

 appreciation of the paucity of the data and ubiquity of the species 

 enumerated, such as I can recall of those then treasures, as a 

 small and insignificant basis for a county list — a mere twig in 

 that vast forest of insect fauna which must exist, and only needs 

 the working, in so fertile and well-wooded a county. I began to 

 cross the confines of the Science in 1887, and in the Augusts of 

 1888-92 I noted the following species in the vicinity of Peter- 

 borough, with a few additions from Mr. Hill's collection : — 



Pieris brassiccc, rapes, and napi ; Euchlo'e cardamines, common ; 

 Gonepteryx rhamni, females unusually common at Barnwell Wold and 

 Marholm in August ; Colias edusa and C. hyede both occurred at Help- 

 ston Heath during the great 1892 year ; Argynnis paphia and adippe, 

 somewhat common at Helpston Woods; A. aglaia, common among 

 very rough grass outside the wood; A. euphrosyne and A. selene were 

 both taken in the same locality by Mr. Hill ; Vanessa urtica, io, and 

 atalanta, common ; V. polychloros at Barnwell Wold and Peterborough 

 sparingly, — I have found the pupa at Marholm ; V. cardui, widely 

 distributed and uncommon ; Apatura iris was said to occur at both 

 Helpston Heath and Barnwell Wold, but I never saw it, nor do I know 

 of authentic records ; Melanargia galatea, very abundant among long- 

 dry grass in a very rough field at Helpston, and I have also seen it at 

 Sutton Heath in 1890 ; Pararge egeria and megcera, Epinephele ianira, 

 tithonus, hyperanthus, and Camonympha pamphilus, common ; Thecla 

 quercus and rubi both occurred at Helpston Heath ; Polyommatus 

 X>ldceus was common, especially in the fens about Yaxley and Holme, 

 where the specimens were of unusual size and depth of colour; Lycana 



