48 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
and centuncularis, willughbiella and ligniseca (the last from thistle- 
heads at Royden). 
(To be continued.) 
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 
DISAPPEARANCE OF AGRIADES CORYDON AB. SYNGRAPHA FROM THE 
CuinTerns.—I have read Mr. Oliver’s note on the disappearance of 
this beautiful form from its once favoured haunts in the hills about 
Cadsdene. I do not agree with the reasons he suggests for this 
disappearance, and I believe it myself to be due principally to the 
depredations of the reckless and callous collector. If not, all I can 
say is that the coincidence of this year’s scarcity, if not actual 
extinction of the form, is more than remarkable. I have known the 
Cadsdene locality for close on five and twenty years. I have no 
doubt that I should have discovered the presence of ab. syngrapha (I 
can find no warrant at present for displacing Keferstein’s name as 
demanded by Tutt, and the substitution of tthonus, Meig., as 
Meigen’s description is not convincing) long before I did had I not 
almost invariably until 1913, I think, been abroad or out of reach of 
the Chilterns in August. I certainly did discover the form here—at 
all events, I was the first to publish it, though I left the immediate 
locality unspecified. Very bitterly do I regret that I ever did publish 
the second note when I had had an opportunity of visiting the spot 
at the right season. No one seems to have taken any notice of the 
original announcement (‘ Entom.,’ vol. xliv, p. 290), probably becatise it 
recorded a single specimen, and that late in the year—September 9th. 
It was in 1916 that I encountered the first net on the syngrapha 
ground. Owing to the war work in which I was engaged I had 
little time for observations, and my visits had been very few and far 
between. The net in question had secured twenty examples without 
effort in a single morning; and, as I anticipated, it was futile to 
expect that the little preserve, from which I had taken as many 
examples myself in as many years, would be secret to myself and a 
few genuine Nature-lovers much longer. My worst fears were 
realised in 1917, when the ground was overrun by dealers’ collectors, 
and amateurs apparently drawn from all parts of the United 
Kingdom, and not engaged, I assume, in war work. I have reason 
to know that some hundreds of syngrapha were removed, in the 
majority of cases immediately on emergence, and, therefore, before 
they had been given the chance to pair and lay their eggs. Also the 
worst features of the Royston massacres were reproduced—the 
variety hunter netting every female, bottling them wholesale before 
examination, and leaving those rejected as normal dead or poisoned 
on the grass. The Royston ground is extended, the Chilterns ground 
but a patch. Syngrapha had become a commercial asset. It was, 
in my opinion, only a question of time how soon the place thereof 
would know it no more in sufficient numbers to make it worth while 
the annual invasion. I find the following entry in my entomological 
notes for 1917: «August 11th. Was disgusted to find people had 
been on the syngrapha ground apparently foraliving. . . . Was 
informed that one collector had taken over 100 the previous day.” 
