CYANIRIS SEMIARGUS. 305 



A few notices of captures occurred between 1850 and 1862, chiefly 

 in the Ent. Weekly Intelligencer and Zoologist, and these we have noted 

 in our list of dates of captures and British localities. In 1862, 

 Curtis noted (Brit. Ent., 2nd ed., fo. 9) : — 



Polyommatus acis .... occurs in chalky places from the end of May 

 to the end of July, in Yorkshire, Leicestershire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Coleshill 

 in Warwick, Windlesham Heath in Surrey, Amesbury and Brockenhurst in Hants, 

 Glanvilles Wootton in Dorset. 



By this time the species had become practically extinct in England. 

 With the exception of a few examples taken in South. Wales in the 

 " seventies," very few others have been recorded, and most of these must 

 be accepted with caution. As giving some clue to the money value of 

 the examples of supposed British origin at present in collections, we 

 may note : (1) 4 examples in the " Naish coll.," sold at Stevens' sale- 

 rooms, May, 1892, produced 18s. (Ent. Rec, iii., p. 128); (2) 40 in the 

 " Burney coll.," sold at Stevens', November, 1893, produced £17 10s. 

 (Ent. Rec, iv., p. 328); (3) 5 in the " Machin coll.," sold February, 

 1895, produced £2 6s. for 2, and £2 10s. for 3 (Ent. Rec, vii., p. 135); 

 (4) 4 in the " Tugwell coll.," sold December, 1895, produced £1 15s. 

 and £1 10s. per pair (Ent. Rec, vii., p. 189); (5) 8 in the " Fry coll.," 

 sold March 9th, 1896, produced £1, £1, 18s., 14s., per pair (Ent. Rec, 

 vii., p. 313); (6) 18 in the " Sam Stevens' coll.," sold March, 1900, in 

 sets of six, for £2 10s., £1 15s., and £1 15s. (Ent. Rec, xii., p. Ill); 

 (7) 20 in the " Mason coll.," March, 1905, produced £2 5s., £3, and 

 £3 10s., for 3 pairs, £2, £2 10s., £1 15s., for 3 lots of 3 $ s each, £3 

 for 3<? s and 2 2 s (Ent. Rec, xxxviii., p. 113); (8) 7 in the " Barrett 

 coll.," March, 1906, 3 for £3 15s., and 4 for £2 (Ent. Rec, xviii., 

 p. 110); (9) 2 in the "Greene coll.," May, 1906, £5 for the 2 examples 

 (Ent. Rec, xviii., p. 192). The variation in the price is considerable, 

 partly, perhaps, due to want of information as to the origin of the 

 specimens, more particularly, perhaps, in the case of specimens 

 from standard collections of this description, due to difference 

 in quality and condition. The following are the only exact dates of 



1857 ; but previously, in the Zoologist, x., p. 3494 (1852), Greene had written, in his 

 " List of the Lepidoptera of the Cotswolds: " "P. acis, scarce, two, end of June," 

 the two statements disagreeing somewhat. The statement from Stainton's Manual 

 " two specimens at Lower Guiting, on the Cotswolds, the beginning of July, 1849," 

 was copied into Newman's Brit. Butts., p. 133, and was then copied by Dale (Ent. 

 Mo. Mag., xxxviii., p. 78), but with the wrong reference — Zoologist, x., p. 3494. At 

 this time, after 45 years, Greene took objection to the statement (evidently his own 

 as quoted by Stainton), and observed (op. cit., p. 112) that " The capture is correct, 

 but the date of the year, and the month of the capture are alike wrong .... 

 Where Mr. Dale got his dates I know not, but it is sufficient evidence of their being 

 wrong that I did not go to Guiting till October, 1849. The two acis were taken 

 June, 1850. I was 'younger' then, and knew little or nothing about 'rarities,' 

 but now I know that I was fortunate enough during the two summers of 1850-1, to 

 capture ' eight ' acis .... now in my comparatively small collection." He 

 adds: " The reference to Zoologist, vol. x (published 1852, is to my ' List of the 

 Lepidoptera on the Cotswolds, Glos,' written and sent to the editor in 1853, when 

 I was at Halton, Bucks." This is very naive, and one wonders how a list written 

 in 1853 was published in 1852, and how the ignorant Greene, in 1853, distinguished 

 two, and failed with six other, examples caught in 1850-1, and how Stainton quoted 

 the dates Newman and Dale use, if Greene did not supply them. Considering how 

 acute Greene was in pointing out the trippings of others, one wonders how he came 

 to overlook both Stainton and Newman, whence Dale evidently got his dates. It 

 is still more remarkable that at the sale of Greene's coll. (Ent. Rec, xviii., p. 192), 

 only ' two,' and not ' eight ' examples were sold. 



