260 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
In 1870 entomologists seem to have been a little troubled 
about the right of O. dispar to be considered a British insect, 
referring, of course, to those larve or imagines which were then 
found at large. In the ‘Entomologist’ for that year the species 
is frequently mentioned. Mr. Tratman, of Bristol, found a small 
larva feeding on a plant of azalea, which had been brought into 
his house; this in due course produced a “splendid male, 
measuring two inches across the wings, and, besides being larger, 
was of a much richer and darker colour than the specimens 
usually seen in cabinets, bred ‘in and in,’ by collectors, from 
foreign insects” (p. 172). Mr. A. Davidson states that while 
passing, by coach, the side of Loch Mara, a larva of O. dispar 
fell from a tree on to his coat; and he considered that that fact 
should satisfactorily dispose of the question whether the species 
was indigenous or not (p. 213). Mr. Spiller records a male 
specimen captured in Butter Wood, near Odiham, and remarks, 
“Tt is both larger and darker than the bred specimens usually 
seen in collections” (p. 183). Mr. D. T. Britton reports larve 
“not uncommon on the straggling bushes of sloe, whitethorn, and 
wild rose” on the Essex marshes below Tilbury (p. 393). This 
statement is corroborated by Mr. R. W. Bowyer, who says that 
he found two larve ‘feeding on a rose tree” between Tilbury and 
Southend (p. 452). 
Since the year last mentioned, records of captures of odd 
examples of the larva and imago in various places have been 
recorded from time to time, but it is perhaps unnecessary to refer 
to these in detail. 
That Ocneria dispar, like its namesake, Polyommatus dispar, 
is extinct in Britain, there is, I think, no reasonable doubt; but 
when it became so we have no means of definitely ascertaining. 
This much, however, appears certain, that somewhere about the 
fourth decade of the present century the species began to decrease 
in numbers, and that towards the end of the ‘‘fifties” it had 
practically ceased to exist as a wildling in this country. O. dispar 
can now only be regarded as a semi-domesticated species in 
England, and complete degeneration of the stock, by the process 
known as ‘‘in-and-in breeding,” is possibly averted by the 
periodical introduction of ova from the Continent. 
There is not the least doubt that attempts have been made to 
re-establish the species in various parts of the country, but all 
these efforts appear to have failed. Probably most, or possibly 
all, of the larve and imagines found at large during the past 
forty years or so may have been the direct result of sundry 
“turning down”’ experiments. 
As it does not seem possible to restock the country with 
O. dispar by what may be termed artificial means (which is 
perhaps fortunate for fruit-growers and other non-entomological 
members of the community), the inference would seem to be that 
