A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



The White Admiral (Limenitis sibylla) is found in most of the larger 

 woods in north Essex, and in the closing year of the past century was 

 very abundant in some of them. It seems however to be scarce in the 

 other districts. Mr. Fitch reports a single specimen from Hazeleigh 

 in 1899, Mr. Jeffrey gives Saffron Walden as a locality, and formerly it 

 occurred in Epping Forest. As the larvas feed on the honeysuckle that 

 grows among the tallest underwood, it follows that large numbers of 

 them must perish every winter when the annual clearances are made, 

 and where these are unusually extensive and continued for three or four 

 years the species may be reduced to the verge of extinction ; and this is 

 probably the main cause of the fluctuation in its numbers in restricted 

 localities. 



The Purple Emperor (Apatura iris) doubtless suffers from the same 

 cause. The larvae hibernate upon the sallow, and in some of its most 

 favoured haunts there are only a few scattered bushes, and when these 

 are cut the larva? necessarily perish. In many woods sallows abound, 

 and there the struggle for existence is carried on under more favourable 

 conditions ; but in these days the species must always be much scarcer 

 than it was formerly when thousands of acres of grand old trees stood 

 where only a few miserable sticks stand to-day. For the green woods of 

 England have disappeared in all directions, and their beautiful wild 

 flowers, birds and insects have to a very considerable extent gone with 

 them. But even under the most favourable circumstances this butterfly 

 was always more or less sporadic. In 1855-6 it was common in the 

 Colchester district, and again for two or three years in the early eighties 

 was comparatively common ; but since then it has become exceedingly 

 rare, not only in Essex but also in Kent, where it occurred freely about 

 the same time. There its disappearance has been attributed to the 

 rapacity of collectors, but here it cannot have been due to this cause, 

 for certainly not more than five per cent, of the specimens seen were 

 captured, as far as can be ascertained. It seems to have occurred in all 

 the larger Essex woods in past years, and doubtless still exists in some of 

 them, and may again recover its lost ground for a time in the near 

 future. 



The Marbled White (Melanargia galated] was formerly abundant 

 near the wood on Mersea Island, but disappeared with the wood many 

 years ago. Hartley Wood, St. Osyth, also produced it in great plenty ; 

 but only a small remnant of that wood is still standing, and to the few 

 entomologists of this generation who have visited it galatea is only a 

 tradition not a memory. It still occurs pretty freely in south Essex, 

 where it is found at Laindon, on Canvey Island, on the slopes near Had- 

 leigh Castle and elsewhere, but has disappeared from several other 

 districts. In 1858-9 specimens were found on the railway embank- 

 ment at Lexden, and much more recently a single example was captured 

 on the railway near Wivenhoe ; but whether these were stragglers from 

 the south or from an undiscovered colony which may possibly still exist 

 in the north is a moot point. 



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