THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Vol. LIL] DECEMBEE, 1919. [No. 679 



EREBIA MTHIOPS AT ARNSIDE. 

 By H. Eowland Brown, M.A., F.E.S. 



A SPECIAL interest attaches to Erehia athiops in its Arnside 

 (Westmorland) locality. At this point it reaches its southern 

 limit in the north west of our islands. I was, therefore, par- 

 ticularly glad to have an opportunity of observing cetldops in 

 this one of its English haunts when I was transferred to Liver- 

 pool for two or three weeks at the beginning of August last, and 

 still more so when my friend, Mr. C. F. Johnson, of Heaton 

 Mersey, decided to accompany me for the week-end, August 8th- 

 10th. The Lancashire holiday was just beginning and the con- 

 gestion on the railways oppressive, but once out of the train the 

 peace and sunshine of Arnside completely restored us to equani- 

 mity, and having disposed of our modest baggage at the Crown 

 Hotel, piloted by Mr. A. E. Wright, who had kindly come over 

 from Grange for the purpose, we were taken at once to the 

 ground. A more exquisite landscape it is impossible to imagine, 

 and the limestone hills, a blaze of chrome ragwort against an 

 Italian blue sky, presented a picture of never-to-be-forgotten 

 beauty. I was surprised to hear from my companion that our 

 Erehia, once so common at Grange-on- Sands, across the estuary 

 of the Kent river, had completely disappeared therefrom, with 

 Leptosia sinapis. The why and wherefore of this strange depar- 

 ture is inexplicable, but in accordance with experiences of other 

 vanished or vanishing species in Britain it appears to be due to 

 natural causes rather than the indiscriminate assaults of the 

 collector. In such cases there is always the hope that some day 

 or other the species will reassert itself, as we have seen certain 

 species have returned to their former localities after, it may be, 

 an absence of even a century. May it be so in north Lancashire 

 with Erehia cethiops, no longer, also, a denizen of Witherslack. 



As a matter of fact we were just a week too late to find our 

 butterfly in perfection — the majority of the males netted were 

 decidedly passes, the females, some of them, already beginning 

 to show signs of wear and particularly tear, for cethiops has the 

 habit of flying into thorn and bramble when alarmed — and 



BNTOM. DECEMBER, 1919. AA 



