18'j.rj . 133 



saw the light. Tlie number of what may be called London Butterflies 

 is fast diminishing. I could point to more than one within the last 

 20 years, and be it observed that this disappearance of once familiar 

 insects from our immediate neighbourhood seems to be often connected 

 with a tendency to localization elsewhere, which may probably end in 

 extinction, for to my mind, and I think to that of every observant 

 Entomologist, many British Butterflies are on the wane. 



Assuming that the " Black- Yeined White " ceased to be a London 

 insect early in this century, it nevertheless remained abundant (though 

 somewhat intermittent in this respect) in many other parts of the 

 country. In our own County of Kent, my colleague, Mr. Goss, was 

 informed that in 184 i it was the commonest Butterfly at Wye, it 

 had disappeared in 1859 ; it was certainly the commonest Butterfly in 

 the Heme Bay district before alluded to, but in 1864 Mr. Goss ex- 

 plored the district without seeing it ; it abounded near Rochester and 

 Strood up to 1866, and then presumably disappeared, but one was 

 captured in 1872. Many other localities in the county also furnished 

 it, and it has been recorded from between Dover and Ramsgate 

 so lately as 1890, and while writing this Address, I heard of a capture 

 in East Kent last year ; but, with regard to some straggling captures 

 in Kent and elsew^here, recorded latterly, there is to my mind just a 

 shadow of a doubt, inasmuch as foreign pupae are now imported and 

 sold in large numbers, and some of the resulting Butterflies may ac- 

 cidentally escape or be intentionally set free, and be regarded by the 

 captors as real natives. 



I do not propose to notice its special localities to any extent 

 outside our own county. In the New Eorest, in Hampshire, it abounded 

 probably every year down to 1870, but by 1878 or 1880 it had entirely 

 disappeared. In 1867, it was abundant near Tintern, in Monmouth- 

 shire, in 1877 it was practically extinct. In 1868 and 1869, it was 

 common in Glamorganshire, but has not been seen since. In other 

 counties, such as Sussex, Huntingdon, Northampton, and Hereford, 

 where it formerly abounded, it has not been seen for many years. 



Upon analyzing these dates it would seem that in localities where 

 the Butterfly was plentiful in comparatively recent years, we find a 

 gradual disappearance of it, commencing about the year 1865, in some 

 places much more marked than in others, and that by about 1878 it 

 had become practically extinct, the few specimens observed since then 

 having been some of them sporadic, and others under conditions that 

 might leave reasonable doubt as to their being of absolute British 

 origin. 



