1893. J 135 



over, in order to render the reclaimed land more available for cultiva- 

 tion, the herbage on them was fired. A few stragglers have been 

 recorded from other parts, but the records mostly need confirmation. 

 This is a far more serious loss than that of Aporia cratcegi, because it 

 means the extinction of a Butterfly that existed nowhere else in the 

 world. It is true that the species exists on the Continent in a slightly 

 modified form {Gh. rutilus), but our own type-form presented certain 

 peculiarities not seen elsewhere. 



The other extinct Butterfly is Ziyccena Acts. This was a widely- 

 spread insect over England, but was always extremely local, and seldom, 

 if ever, found in numbers. Its extinction was going on for many 

 years, and probably commenced about 1840 ; a few captures have been 

 made within the last ten years, but there is every reason to believe 

 that it is BOW totally extinct, and in this case I cannot but think that 

 over-collecting has greatly aided extinction. 



And here I would remark that a near relative of the last, Lyccena 

 Avion, shows signs of being dangerously near extinction, having 

 become so localized as to apparently exist only in a certain limited 

 area of a few miles, of which area the junction line of Devon and 

 Cornwall may be taken as the centre. In its case, I would implore 

 collectors to refrain from taking the insect for a series of consecutive 

 years, if only to see whether its decline might not be checked, and 

 whether it might not re-appear in some of its former haunts. 



Our Butterflies at the present time number only about 63 

 species (I purposely exclude a few that may be regarded as merely 

 casual stragglers). When we regard the very much larger number 

 that exist in all the most adjacent parts of the Continent of Europe 

 (even in Scandinavia) we are compelled, I think, to the belief that in 

 times pre-historic, so far as Entomology is concerned, the list must 

 have been much longer, and I doubt not that certain kinds, of which 

 no record whatever remains, once existed in the vicinity, perhaps in 

 the streets, of that ancient City of Silchester, to the Zoological and 

 other relics of which our respected Member, Mr. Herbert Jones, is 

 devoting so much and so laudable attention ; and there may then have 

 been some Eoman naturalist who studied them, and small boys who 

 chased them. 



But islands generally, save in the tropics, do not seem favourable 

 to Butterfly life, and the small distances that often separate them from 



