LEPIDOPTERA OF THE MACCLESFIELD DISTRICT. 267 



it'ordshire. The latter has been found the most productive 

 in insects, as it also is the most interesting both for its natural 

 charms and the legends associated with it. I have visited each 

 of these places several times, but the weather has always been 

 more or less unfavourable for collecting. 



Of woods there are none within some six or seven miles, but 

 as all the hedgerows both of lanes and fields are thickly studded 

 with timber trees of all kinds, there is no lack of pabulum for 

 the larvae of those species of Lepidoptera that feed on, say, 

 alder, beech, birch, elm (wych), oak, poplar, &c. Cocks Moss 

 is one of several adjoining long narrow strips of woodland lying 

 to the south of the town. These are rigidly preserved, and the 

 entomologist, not being understood in these parts, is considered 

 as something pretty low down in the poaching line of business, 

 and does not meet with favour from the gentlemen in velveteen. 

 At the certain risk of being summarily ejected if seen, I have 

 been several times to these woodlets in the hope of meeting with 

 Dicramira bicusjns in one or other of its stages, but I have not 

 succeeded in detecting any trace whatever of this species. There 

 is an abundance of alder in all stages of growth, and the locality 

 altogether seemed to me to be just the spot for the " kitten." 



A former collector of British Lepidoptera, now living in this 

 town, but who previously resided at Congleton, a town about 

 eight miles further south, informs me that several of the Argyn- 

 nidae and other butterflies used to occur along the Dane Valley. 

 I have not been often to this valley, charming locality though it 

 is, because my attention has been chiefly bestowed on moss and 

 moor. On the occasions, however, when I did give myself the 

 pleasure of an excursion up the valley of the river Dane, I failed 

 to see any other butterflies than the three common Pierids _ and 

 Coejwnympha pamijliUus. In fact those species, with the addition 

 of one specimen of Melitcea aurinia (= artemis), which settled on 

 my lawn, and whose headquarters I could not discover, a few 

 Chrysophanus jMceas, and larvae of Vanessa atalanta, are all I am 

 able to chronicle with certainty as butterflies occurring in the 

 district around Macclesfield. There seems to be httle doubt that 

 Coenomjmpha typhon ( = clavus) did exist on Danes Moss, but I 

 am not sure that it occurs there still, although I got a glimpse of 

 a butterfly last year which I fancied at the time was this species. 

 It is also reported to occur on the ' Cat and Fiddle ' moor, but I 

 have not seen it there. 



The only representative of the Sesiidae that I have met with 

 is an example of Trochilium crabroniformis, which I found at rest 

 on osier on the Moss. I have seen this species at rest in a state 

 of nature more than once, but am always in doubt, for the 

 moment, as to whether the insect is lepidopterous or hymenop- 

 terous. Its resemblance to a hornet is much more striking when 

 reposing on a leaf or twig, than when set out as a cabinet speci- 



