THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



No. 36.] JANUARY, MDCCCLXVII. [Prick 6d. 



The Irish List of Lepidoptera. By Edwin Birchall, Esq. 



In reply to the Rev. Joseph Greene's remarks (Entom. iii. 

 155), I must admit having intentionally omitted Papilio Ma- 

 chaou from my list of Irish Lepidoptera. I do not in the 

 least doubt the accuracy of the three observations of the 

 insect which Mr. Greene quotes, but I cannot think they 

 justify us in considering Machaon as really indigenous. 

 I have little doubt that, in all the instances, imported speci- 

 mens had been set at liberty. I have myself turned out, in 

 the neighbourhood of Dublin, many specimens of the insect, 

 year after year. 



Considering the almost nominal price for which the pupae 

 can be obtained at the birdstufFers' shops in London, and 

 the ease with which they are reared, there can be no doubt 

 large numbers have been from time to time imported into 

 Ireland ; and when the butterfly emerges, its beauty and 

 singularly gentle and familiar ways plead so powerfully in its 

 favour that its life is frequently spared, at least in houses 

 where there are ladies to intercede for it. 



The number thus set at liberty annually, in various parts 

 of the country, must be very great ; and as the food-plants 

 are generally distributed, the wonder is, not that it has been 

 three times observed at large in Ireland, but that it has not 

 permanently established itself in many places, and may teach 

 us how little we yet know of the causes which limit the range 

 of a species. 



In the ' Zoologist,' vol. iii. p. 944, will be found an inte- 

 resting account of an attempt, by Mr. Wolley, to naturalize 

 P. Machaon in Derbyshire ; and although hundreds of spe- 

 cimens were turned out under very favourable conditions, the 

 result was failure. 



1 did not erase the insect from the Irish hst without 

 a certain pang, but the compilers of local lists require to be 



VOL. III. o 



