128 LATIOE COPPER. 



the mercantile, the physical, and the intellectual wealth of the 

 country. The entomologist is the only person who has cause 

 to lament the change, and he, loyal and patriotic subject as 

 he is, must not repine at even the disappearance of the Large 

 Copper Butterfly, in the face of such vast and magnificent 

 advantages. Still he may be pardoned for casting "one longing 

 lingering look behind," and I cannot but with some regret 

 recall, at all events, the time when almost any number of this 

 dazzling fly was easily procurable, either "by purchase" or "by 

 exchange," for our cabinets. A goodly "rank and file," from 

 some individuals of which the figures in the plate are taken, 

 I now consider myself fortunate in possessing, for the existing 

 number of indigenous specimens is no more again to be added 

 to by fresh recruits: "Fuit Ilium et ingens gloria" — 



"The liglit of otlier days lias faded, and all its glories past." 



Nay, further, not only is it, or rather was it, for it is now, as I 

 have said, extinct, extremely local, but it has always hitherto been 

 believed, like the Grouse, to be peculiar to Britain, being not 

 found elsewhere. These are inexplicable facts in Natural History, 

 but into the consideration of which the limits of my space pre- 

 vent me from entering. Mr. H. N. Humphreys however states 

 that he took a specimen, which appeared to be identical with 

 it, in the Pontine marshes between Rome and Naples. 



The "Fen Districts" of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, 

 and other congenial places in Norfolk and Sufl'olk, such as Holme 

 Fen, Whittlesea Mere — now no longer a Mere, Bardolph Fen, and 

 Benacre, were the localities of this fine fly. It was quick and 

 active on the wing, flying among and about the reeds. 



It appears, that is to say, used to appear at the end of July 

 and the beginning of August. 



The food of the caterpillar was the water-dock. 



This species measures in the expanse of its wings from a 

 little under to a little over an inch and a half. The fore 

 wings are of a splendid copper-colour, with a black edging to 

 the outside of the wing, widest' at the upper corner, from 

 whence it decreases; there is a black oblong spot in the centre 



