CATALOGUE OF BTJTTERrLIES. 15 



land, except the solitary specimen taken by Mr. Hamilton at 

 Newcastle. I do not think the insect is nearly so abundant 

 now as it was thirty years ago, but it is a species that has 

 disappeared from many localities in various parts of England 

 during that period. 



14. V. Polychloros (Linn.). Large Tortoise-shell. 



Vanessa Polychloros. Staint. Man., vol. 1, p. 39. 

 ,, ,, • l^ewm. Brit. Butt., p. 55. 



,, ,, Barrett's Lep. Brit. Is , vol. 1, p. 127. 



Laeva. Buck., vol. 1, pi. ix., fig. 1 ; Wils., pi. iii., fig. 3. 



It is very curious that "Wallis should record this species as if 

 it were a resident in his neighbourhood. He says, " The 

 Tortoise-shell Butterfly is not unfrequent in Alpine Woods 

 and shady pastures in July and August. I have also observed 

 it in gardens." The only butterflies that could possibly be 

 confounded with this, are the preceding and succeeding species, 

 both of which he also records. But apart from this, Wailes 

 points out that the list of authorities Wallis quotes sufiiciently 

 prove the identity of the species. 



At the date of Wailes' Catalogue no other record had been 

 made of its occurrence in either county, and he wrote, '' It is 

 certainly strange that this conspicuous species should not have 

 been met with by any other person than the reverend author 

 (Wallis), but we must recollect that few of the subsequent 

 observers have had the same leisure for continued investigation 

 that fell to his lot, and that the beautiful vale of the !N'orth 

 Tyne, where his principal labours lay, is yet a terra incognita, 

 so far as Entomology is concerned. There is certainly every 

 probability that future researches will enable us to corroborate 

 his record of the species, though the paucity of the English 

 Elm, upon which the larva feeds, in many parts of the two 

 counties, certainly does not add to the chance of success." 



The larvae are now known to feed also on Ulmus montana 

 (Wych Elm), and have been found " abundantly upon Aspen 



