WHAT HAS BECOME OF THE BRITISH SATYRID^ ? 147 



place, state the facts from my own memory. In the late sixties 

 and early seventies E. ianira was abundant round and about 

 Leyton, in Essex, and in the Epping Forest district generally. 

 It swarmed among the long grass of the Hackney Marshes and 

 all along the Lea Valley. It is now a comparative rarity in this 

 district ; two years ago a few specimens were noted, as a kind 

 of curiosity, in the marshes between Ponders End and Chingford, 

 but the predominance of this species is evidently a thing of the 

 past. During the same period P. egeria used to sun itself on 

 the southern wall regularly every summer in our garden at 

 Leyton, and was fairly common in the Forest. I have not seen 

 it in the latter district for more than twenty years. So also 

 P. megcera, which could always be seen in the Forest glades, has 

 practically disappeared from this locality. The same remark 

 applies to E. hyperanthes, which used to flutter in swarms over 

 the bushes in the Forest, and which is now quite extinct in the 

 district, according to my experience. E. tithonus was never 

 common in the Forest or its environment, but could always be 

 seen at the right season. In the country round Twickenham 

 and Anerley, which I also used to frequent at that time, this 

 butterfly was quite a conspicuous feature of hedgerow insect life. 

 I have seen the bramble-flowers crowded with this butterfly 

 season after season, and, paraphrasing Hans Breitmann, I ask, 

 "Where is that species now?" At the time referred to, the 

 chalk downs along the Caterham Valley (Riddlesdown, &c.) used 

 to be favourite localities with collectors. The commonest Satyrid 

 then was S. semele, which was out with L. corydon (common), 

 L. minima (rare), and Z . Jilipendulce (abundant). One morning's 

 visit to Eiddlesdown at that period sufficed to fill up one's 

 *' series " of all these species. Semele has disappeared from the 

 locality, so also, according to my experience, has L. minima. 

 L. corydon and Z. Jilipendulce still linger on in the more remote 

 and less frequented coombs of the chalk downs, but they have 

 disappeared from their former habitats, and are getting scarcer 

 in their present localities. 



The question raised in this note is, of course, only part of the 

 general question of the causes of the fluctuation in numbers of 

 British species. The answer cannot be given in terms of one 

 factor : it is not always a simple case of the over-running of 

 localities by " humanity," because I have found, and my experi- 

 ence is confirmed by others, that the decline of the Satyridas is 

 pretty general. The causes which in districts undergoing 

 "urbanization" are operative to the extent of producing local 

 extinction appear to be also operative, although in a lesser 

 degree, in the rural habitats of those species which used formerly 

 to be abundant. What these causes are I am not prepared to 

 state dogmatically, but it seems to me worth while putting my 

 recollections upon record before they fade, for there must be 



