C(ENONYMPHA TIPHON IN NORTH WALES. 91 



is extremely restricted ; all my captures were made within a 

 space of two hundred yards or so, and though there were plenty 

 of equally likely-looking spots in the immediate vicinity, I found 

 no specimens outside this area. 



It remains for those entomologists who have sufficient time 

 and leisure to investigate more fully the life-history of this in- 

 teresting little butterfly, and to settle definitely whether or no 

 the arbutus is, in the absence of Coriaria myrtifolia, the food- 

 plant of its larva. Personally, I have little doubt that it is, and 

 I am not without hope that these few rough notes may elicit a 

 scientific confirmation from some zealous Aurelian who has 

 successfully piloted C. avis from ovum to imago, by the judicious 

 exhibition of the foliage of Arbutus unedo ! 

 Maes Court, Tenbury. 



CCENONYMPHA TIPHON, Eott., IN NORTH WALES. 

 By J. Arkle. 



Soon after accepting an invitation to visit my friend Mr. 

 W. J. Kerr, at Maesmor, his residence in North Wales, I received 

 a letter from Mr. H. Rowland -Brown, asking for information 

 respecting Coenonympha tiphon (davus), and especially with 

 reference to its supposed haunts, recorded a hundred years ago, 

 but never, I am told, since verified, in the mountain region 

 " between Bala and Festiniog," in the county of Merioneth. I 

 had not seen or taken the butterfly in North Wales, and the 

 only clue I possessed was a recollection that Mr. Kerr had 

 observed it more than once, and, further, that Mr. A. 0. Walker, 

 in his ' Macrolepidoptera of trie Chester District,' records the 

 butterfly on Minera Mountain, in the county of Denbighshire. 

 However, I informed Mr. Rowland-Brown of my projected visit, 

 assuring him that the chief entomological object of my stay 

 would be the rediscovery of C. tiphon, if possible, in its alleged 

 haunts of long ago. 



Mr. Kerr entered into the project with enthusiasm, and it is 

 entirely owing to him and his powerful motor-car that our efforts 

 were at length crowned with success, though hardly ever was 

 there a more deplorable July than that of 1912 for butterfly 

 hunting, with its cool north-east airs, its cloudy skies, and 

 wintry gleams. 



I reached Maesmor on July 1st, after a railway journey 

 through one of the loveliest regions on earth — the Vale of Llan- 

 gollen. Our search for C. tiphon began next day, and in suc- 

 ceeding days, I may add, we failed to find it anywhere in likely 

 places on Mr. Kerr's estate, such as a snipe bog, the grouse 

 moors, &c, although often favoured with increased warmth and 

 fitful sunshine. 



h 2 



