486 Alexander Goodman More Scientific Papers. 



\From "THE ZOOLOGIST," vol. 16, 1858.] 



ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF BUTTERFLIES 

 IN GREAT BRITAIN.* BY T. BOYD AND A. G. MORE, 

 ESQRS. 



p. 6018. THE present paper originated in a desire to ascertain how far the plan 

 of Mr. H. C. Watson's " Cybele Britannica" is available in the sister 

 science of Zoology, and for our experiment we have selected the butter- 

 flies as the best-known and most generally studied of British insects. 

 It is now offered to entomologists as a sketch which future observation 

 may fill up, as something to which the youngest, if only he be accurate, 

 may make useful additions, and so aid in forming a list which shall be 

 valuable in a scientific point of view. 



Anyone at all acquainted with entomology, its present immature 

 condition, its peculiar liability to error, and the state of feeling among 

 collectors, will easily perceive that nothing beyond a bare sketch of the 

 distribution of any family of insects is at present possible. We are 

 aware that the accompanying list might have been made much more 



p. 6019. complete had a wider range of authorities been taken ; but | knowing how 

 much doubt attaches to many names occurring in the best works, and 

 the amount of inaccuracy to be found in many local lists, it appeared to 

 us that more would be lost in value than gained in completeness by 

 quoting authorities indiscriminately. We have, therefore, confined 

 ourselves to one recent work, which we believe to be compiled with 

 great care viz., Stainton's "Manual of British Butterflies " ; and for 

 the rest we have relied upon the authority of the following entomologists, 

 to whom our best thanks are due, and whose names will be a sufficient 

 guarantee for the accuracy of their information : Messrs. Allis, Ash- 

 worth (since deceased), Bond, Buxton, Doubleday, Edleston, Harris, 

 Logan, Salt, and Vaughan. Two or three localities are also added on 

 the authority of McGillivray ' s " Natural History of Dee-side." 



The names adopted are those of Doubleday's " Synonymic List," 

 which we believe are at the present time most generally used in this 

 country. The particulars of the " Provinces" into which Mr. Watson 

 has divided Great Britain are enumerated below : 



1. Peninsula: Cornwall, Devon, Somerset. 



2. Channel: Dorset, Wilts, Isle of Wight, Hants, Sussex. 



3. Thames : Kent, Surrey, Berks, Oxford, Bucks, Middlesex, Herts, 



Essex. 



* Compare a paper on the same subject by Mr. H. T. Stainton, read before 

 the British Association. See Report for 1859 (29th) Transactions of Sections, 



p. I5&- 



Compare also H. Jenner Fust on the Distribution of Lepidoptera in Great 

 Britain and Ireland, Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, 

 3rd Series, vol. IV., pt. 4 (1868). 



