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HEREFOEDSHIEE LEPIDOPTEEA. 



By Mr. Thomas Hutchinson. 



It is considerably over thirty years since I first took a specimen of Ourapteryx 

 Sambncata, and started the collection which some members will remember seeing 

 at Grantsfield on the day the Club met at the Each Camp in 188-1, and it is over 

 twenty years since the Club has been furnished with a complete list of the 

 Lepidoptera that have been taken in the county : vide the Transactions of the 

 Club 1866, page 307, which, with a supplemental list in 1870 (both supplied by 

 my mother), and another list in the same year by Mr. Harman, are, as far as I 

 know, the only records the Club possess of the County Lepidoptera ; and I have 

 now much pleasure in furnishing the Club with a complete list up to the present 

 time. It will be found that very large additions have been made. To make the 

 list as complete as possible, Dr. Wood, of Tarrington, has rendered me very 

 great assistance by kindly furnishing a list of his captures, and Mr. James B. 

 Pilley, of Hereford, has also assisted me with the names of a few rarities he has 

 met with. I have marked the list so as to show, as far as possible, the district in 

 which each species occurs. 



In the Diurni, or Butterflies, the county is fairly rich, 42 species having 

 been taken out of 65 found in Great Britain and Ireland. Besides these, my 

 father, about forty years ago, saw a specimen of the rare Camberwell Beauty, 

 Vanessa Antiopa, and the late Mr. E. Newman reported that he used to take the 

 rare Lycxna Acts quite commonly in a field at the Bach, in the parish of 

 Kimbolton ; but, although we have often hunted, we have never met with it, and 

 I am afraid it has disappeaied from the district. In 1855 I took a specimen of 

 Pieris Cratcegi, and two more were taken in 1860 in the orchard at Grantsfield, 

 and two or three more were seen, but since that date it has not occurred, nor has 

 it been taken, so far as I am aware, elsewhere in the county. In 1860 I also took 

 in the same orchard a female Leucophasia Sinapis, which frequents woods, and is 

 generally common where met with. We have only taken one other specimen in 

 the Leominster district, but it occurs elsewhere in the county. 



In the box which I exhibit will be seen two specimens of Aiithocaris 

 Cardamines, the subject of Dr. Chapman's interesting paper; also the larva 

 preserved by Lord Walsingham, and its curious boat-shaped pupa cases. Colias 

 Edusa, the clouded yellow (there are a pair in the box with its preserved larva), 

 occurs commonly every six or eight years, and is not met with during the 

 interval. This is not an uncommon trait with some species, but wherefore is a 

 mystery ; and it is also uncertain whether they exist in the ova or jaupa state. 

 We have also taken the female variety of Edusa known as Ilelice, the black 

 markings of which are the same as in the ordinary type, but the yellow is a pale 

 lemon instead of a dark orange colour. The males do not vary in this way. In 

 1868 my brother took a specimen of the rare pale clouded yellow Colias Hyale. 

 Dr. Wood reports the capture of Apatura Iris, the Purple Emperor, and Mr. Pilley 



