74 
of years have elapsed during which only a few straggling 
individuals have been seen, or, as in some years, none at all. 
Several important papers on this subject by students of 
our native Butterflies have recently appeared in the Entomo- 
logists Monthly Magazine. The first was a note in the September 
No., 1884, by a correspondent, Mr Broprx1, who writes that in 
its Devonshire locality it might be looked upon as a thing of 
the past. This was followed by an article in the October No., 
1884, “On the probable Extinction of Lycena Arion in Britain,” 
by Mr Herzert Goss, F.L.S. After stating that it is cer- 
tainly extinct in its Northamptonshire locality, he proceeds to 
give his experience of the insect on our Cotteswold hills during 
the years 1876—8, and 1883, which impressed him with its 
undoubtedly increasing rarity in that short period. In the 
January No., 1885, of the same Magazine, an exhaustive paper 
may be found by my friend Mr Marspen, his observations 
extending from 1866 to the present time. In 1870 he found it 
in enormous numbers, but since that year it has never occurred 
to him in anything like such abundance. During four of 
these years, 1881—4, none were seen by him. Other writers 
familiar with the Butterfly in its Devonshire locality, express 
a general concurrence in the opinions of Messrs Goss and 
MarspeEn. 
My friend Mr Merrry, well known for his writings on 
Lepidoptera, has obligingly given me some notes on his earliest 
acquaintance with this Butterfly. He was the first to discover 
it in its favorite habitat on our Cotteswolds, as early as 1858, 
and at that time it had an extensive range, stretching from 
near Cheltenham on the north, to the neighbourhood of 
Dursley. Mr Merriy remarks on its occasional disappearance 
for a few years, and on its extraordinary abundance in 1870, 
when he was so fortunate as to discover the eggs on the wild 
thyme, and to partially rear the larve. Neither Mr Merrin 
nor any of the specialists in rearing larve, to whom he sent 
eggs, succeeded in bringing them through the winter. He 
notes that after 1870 it appeared irregularly, and in decreasing 
numbers. 
