38 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Eeturning home, an interesting discovery was made in the 

 shape of some dozen larvffiof Thecla w-album, which were beaten 

 from the lower boughs of a very large wych elm which grows in 

 the park quite close to the garden. It is a somewhat remarkable 

 fact that I should never have noticed w-album on this tree before. 

 Having passed constantly close to it for the past thirty summers 

 one would have thought that if the imagines were flying round 

 the tree in June or July, one would have been bound to notice 

 them ; moreover, on j^revious occasions I have repeatedly beaten 

 the tree in the spring for Noctuse larvae, and have never before, 

 as far as I know, had w-album larvae fall into the beating-tray. 

 It is a very large, isolated tree, a most unlikely and unsuitable 

 locality for the species, which I have never before seen in this 

 district at all, where wych elms are scarce — in fact, iv-album is a 

 rare butterfly in Norfolk, though possibly overlooked. However, 

 it only shows one may live close to a certain thing without being 

 aware of its proximity, as I cannot believe these larvae were stray 

 individuals hatched from ova laid the previous summer by some 

 wandering female. Unluckily I was away from home during the 

 first weeks of July, and so was unable to note whether the 

 butterflies were haunting the tree then. My larvae all emerged 

 successfully into fine specimens. Larvae of Zephi/nis quercus 

 were very abundant locally during June. On July 11th, on 

 Felthorpe Heath, some eight miles from Norwich, Plcbcius cegon 

 was very plentiful, males abundant, females just emerging. 

 I was glad to see Argynnis cydippe also quite common in 

 restricted areas ; this is an insect which has become much more 

 plentiful in Norfolk during the last six or seven years ; previous 

 to that it had almost died out in many localities in the district. 

 Dryas papliia, on the contrary, has become practically extinct in 

 several spots in North Norfolk where it was formerly found. I 

 can give no explanfition for this. Some of its most favoured 

 haunts were on private property, where it was never collected 

 and where the ground remains in apparently exactly the same 

 condition as it always has been. Other insects noted on the 11th 

 were plenty of fresh Epxnephile jurtina, a few C. pamphilus and a 

 single fresh Augiades sylvanns. 



From July 18th I spent a few days at Lyndhurst. The 

 weather was very bad all the time, and I did not do much. 

 During the few sunny periods I), paphia appeared in great 

 profusion with var. valezina, and the usual swarms of Limenitis 

 Sibylla, mostly rather worn, I met two entomologists, who 

 showed me beautiful varieties of this species they had taken, 

 and, though I did not meet with any myself, a large number 

 were captured this year in the Forest. 



Eugonia polychloros was not out at this date ; neither did I 

 see any sign of Apatiira iris. With regard to the latter species 

 in Norfolk, it is melancholy to record that its last known locality 



