THE MARBLE BUTTERFLY AND WASP. 287 



very partially visited us since that period. The 

 keenest entomologist, perhaps, would not much 

 lament the absence of this beauty, if such cheerless 

 seasons were always requisite to bring it to per- 

 fection. Some years ago a quantity of earth was 

 raised in cutting a canal in this county ; and, in 

 the ensuing summer, on the herbage that sprang 

 up from this new soil on the bank, this butterfly 

 was found in abundance, where it had not been 

 observed for many years before. 



In some particular seasons, we have acres of this 

 scabious in bloom, during the months of September 

 and October, giving a tender shade of lavender colour 

 to the whole field, affording now great pleasure 

 to the entomologist, by reason of the multitude 

 of insects that resort to it for the honey in the 

 tubular florets of the plant. Late as this period is, 

 I have seen, in some bright morning, besides mul- 

 titudes of bees, flies, and such creatures, eleven, 

 different species of lepidopterous insects, feeding 

 and balancing on the blue heads, and glancing their 

 gay wings in the sunny beam. 



The marble butterfly (papilio galathea) is an 

 equally capricious visitant of our fields. I have 

 known intervals of ten or twelve years when none 

 could be found, and in some following seasons it 

 would be a prevailing species. 



The common wasp (vespa vulgaris) is infinitely 

 uncertain in its numbers. A mild winter, and a 

 dry spring or summer, we might conclude to be 

 favourable circumstances for the increase of this 



