20 CATALOGUE OF BTTTTEEPLIES. 



Diary of the late J. Sang, 29tli August, 1858. One taken by 

 Mr. Barron at Castle Eden, 8tli February, 1869. This speci- 

 men crawled out of some underwood he was burning, amongst 

 which it had no doubt retired for hybernation. As the larva of 

 this species has rarely, if ever, been met with in Britain, the 

 record of a specimen passing the winter here is of considerable 

 interest. In 1872 Mr. J. P. Taylor, of Hartlepool, had a speci- 

 men brought to him which had been taken at Sheraton, a small 

 village some six miles away, and a few days afterwards he 

 captured a second specimen himself on the sand-banks to the 

 north of the town. Mr. Finlay, of Meldon, near Morpeth, took 

 a specimen in Meldon Park in August, 1876. A specimen was 

 taken the same year at Seaton Carew, and Mr. Henderson took 

 one in Jesmond Cemetery, but I have no record of the date. 

 In 1884 the last specimen I know of was taken near I^orton by 

 Mr. Leeming. These few captures and the long intervals be- 

 tween, are evidence enough that the species is but a casual 

 visitor to our counties. 



18. Vanessa Atalanta (L.). Red Admirai. 



Vanessa Atalanta. Staint. Man., vol. 1, p. 28. 



,, ,, Barrett's Lep. Brit. Is., vol. 1, p. 145. 



,, ,, Meyrick, Hdbk. Brit. Lep., p. 334. 



Pyrameis ,, liJ'ewm. Brit. Butt., p. 62. 



Laeva. Buck., vol. 1, pi. viii., fig. 2 ; O.Wils., pi. iii., fig. 6. 



This beautiful Butterfly, which Wallis calls "the large stately 

 Butterfly called The Admiral," was very abundant and widely 

 distributed in our districts thirty or forty years ago. "Wailes 

 speaks of it abounding in 1857, and says "it is generally diffused 

 over the two counties, and is mentioned in the Stockton and 

 Twizell Pauna and in Ornsby's Durham." Mr. Backhouse says 

 it was common in gardens at Darlington in 1857 and 1858. 

 Eecords about the same period by Mr. C. Eales, Mr. William 

 Maling, and Mr. T. H. Hedworth all speak of it as a species 

 which occurred regularly and abundantly. In my early collect- 

 ing days it was tolerably common, and the larva might be found 



