28 CATALOGUE OF BFTTEEFLIES. 



half a century or more ago. ''The late Mr. E. Currie took it 

 in the neighbourhood of Belford in the spring of 1826." "Wailes. 

 It is also in Selby's Twizell List, and the specimens were in the 

 collection when it was examined for me. Mr. Wm. Backhouse 

 found it in Castle Eden Dene, and Mr. E. Backhouse, Jun., took 

 it near Sunderland. There are no recent records of its appear- 

 ance and I never took it myself. The specimens taken in our 

 counties, like those taken elsewhere in Britain, are a colder 

 brown than the type, and are known as var. jEgeroides. 



28. Pararge Megaera (L.). The Wall. 



Lasiommata Megcdra. Staint. Man., vol. 1, p. 27. 



Pararge ,, I^Tewm. Brit. Butt., p. 87. 



,, ,, Barrett's Lep. Brit. Is., vol. l,p.234. 



,, ,, Meyrick, Hdbk. Brit. Lep, p. 337. 



Laeva. Buck., vol. 1, pi. iv., fig. 2 ; 0. Wils., pi. iv., fig. 2. 



This Butterfly was until 1861 generally distributed through- 

 out both counties, occurring in May and June, and the second 

 brood in August and September. When I commenced to collect 

 it was much the most abundant Butterfly of the district ; but in 

 1861 the first brood never appeared ; in the autumn I saw a soli- 

 tary specimen, and since then I have never seen it hereabouts. 

 The years 1861-2-3 were particularly disastrous seasons for 

 Lepidoptera, and, though this species appeared to survive in a 

 few places for some years longer, I fear it has now totally 

 disappeared. Wallis (1769) said, "it delights to rest on dry 

 banks, stones, and rocks." Mr. Selby informed Mr. Wailes that 

 "it was much less common about Twizell than formerly." Mr. 

 Stephens, in his Illustrations of British Entomology, Haustellata, 

 vol. 1, p. 57, says, that it "frequents the sea-coast where the 

 Magnesian-lime stone occurs at Marsden, near South Shields, 

 while on the rocky shores of the opposite banks of the Tyne, 

 where there is no limestone, it is not found." I scarcely think 

 that it is in any way limited to limestone, as it was common 

 here on the sand-banks. The following localities will show how 

 widely it was spread and when the last specimens were taken. 



