INSECTS 



CuRCULiONiDiE {continued) Curculionid^ {continued) 



near Manchester ; and T. laricis, F., Pityogenes bidentatus, Herbst. Chat 



from Crosby. All however may easily Moss 



have been introduced in fir logs Trypodendron domesticum, L. Agecroft, 



grown elsewhere than in Lancashire Manchester 



LEPIDOPTERA 



Butterflies and Moths 



The order Lepidoptera is undoubtedly better known and more 

 widely studied than any other order of the Insecta. This has been 

 especially the case in Lancashire, and our Lancashire records consequently 

 amount to a much larger proportion of the total of known British species 

 than do those of any other order. Nearly all the Lancashire entomolo- 

 gists have been firstly lepidopterists, and their united efforts have left a 

 very large mass of accumulated information in regard to the local distri- 

 bution of the order, so that it seems probable that very few species occur 

 which have not been put on record by some of them. 



Among those to whom we are more especially indebted for our 

 knowledge of the Lancashire Lepidoptera may be mentioned N. Greening 

 of Warrington, Chappell of Manchester, Threlfall and Hodgkinson of 

 Preston, Gregson and the Brothers Cooke of Liverpool, all of whom, 

 with the exception of Mr. Threlfall, are now dead. Present students 

 of the order are to be found in all the larger towns, and are indeed 

 too numerous to mention individually. 



Some excellent private collections of British Lepidoptera exist in the 

 county, that of Mr. S. J. Capper of Huyton near Liverpool being one 

 of the most complete in the country. In all the public museums also 

 the Lepidoptera are without exception the largest and most complete of 

 the entomological collections. 



The first list of Lancashire Lepidoptera, as of Coleoptera, was com- 

 piled by C. S. Gregson of Liverpool, and published by the Historic 

 Society of Lancashire and Cheshire {Trans. 1855-85). About the same 

 time, 1856, Isaac Byerley, F.L.S., published his Fauna of Liverpool. 

 A fairly full list of the Lepidoptera of the district is given in this work, 

 but the records relate more to the Wirral peninsula than to Lancashire, 

 and there are none outside the immediate vicinity of Liverpool. The 

 preface acknowledges the assistance rendered by Messrs. Brockholes, 

 Warrington, Diggles and Almond (mostly Cheshire collectors) in the 

 compilation of the Lepidoptera section of the Fauna. 



After an interval of several years these lists were followed by the 

 publication by Dr. Ellis of Liverpool of his very complete Lepidopterous 

 Fauna of Lancashire and Cheshire, first published in the pages of the 

 Naturalist, and afterwards in book form in 1890. This list incorporates 

 the observations and records of all the local lepidopterists, and from it 

 principally is drawn the substance of the somewhat condensed list which 

 follows, few additions having been made since its publication. 



The writer however has pleasure in acknowledging the assistance 



127 



