42 



is first seen out on the wing about the middle of July, and is then sometimes 

 to be seen flying about the bramble blossoms, and frequently settling on them 

 to feed, when it may easily be taken." 



In his " Illustrations of British Entomology," J. F. Stephens writes thus, 

 " This species is usually esteemed a scarce insect in the neighbourhood of 

 London, and previously to the last season I never saw it alive ; but the 

 boundless profusion with which the hedges, for miles, in the vicinity of Rip- 

 ley, were enlivened by the myriads that hovered over every flower and bramble 

 blossom, last July, exceeded anything of the kind I have ever witnessed. 

 Some notion of their numbers may be formed, when I mention that I cap- 

 tured, without moving from the spot, nearly 200 specimens in less than half- 

 an-hour, as they successively approached the bramble bush where I had taken 

 up my position. How to account for their prodigious numbers 1 am per- 

 fectly unable, as the same fields and hedges had been carefully explored by 

 me at the same and different periods of the year for several preceding seasons, 

 without the occurrence of a single specimen in either of its stages ; and it is 

 worthy of remark that the hedges to the north and north-west of the town 

 were perfectly free, although the brambles, &c., were in plenty. A few speci- 

 mens were also taken near Windsor, and in Cambridgeshire, and I believe, 

 near Ipswich, during the past season. The entomologists of this last town, 

 Mr. Kirby informs me, do not esteem it a scarce insect ; its usual time of 

 appearance is the end of June, and it continues till the middle of July." In 

 the " Zoologist " for 1847, Mr. Stephen adds, " Although 1 frequented the 

 same locality for thirteen years subsequently ; sometimes in the season, for a 

 month together, I have not seen a single specimen there; but in 1833, I 

 caught one specimen at Madingly Wood, near Cambridge." 



"In 1829 or 1830," so writes the Rev. C. S. Bird, "this insect appeared 

 in the greatest profusion in my own garden, at Burghfield, near Heading." 



It has also been obtained at Melton Wood, near Doncaster, in Yorkshire; 

 Ashton and Barn well Wolds, in Northamptonshire; Stilton, in Huntingdon- 

 shire; New Forest, Hampshire; Allesley, in Warwickshire; and in the 

 neighbourhood of Bristol. 



In 1873, it appeared in great abundance in Savenoke Forest. 



TH.ECLA PRUNI. 



Dark HairstreaJc. 



Pruni, Linn. Pru'ni, from the generic name of its food-plant, the Black- 

 thorn, Prunus spinosus. 



