344 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



many specimens, 49 on one occassion; Stainton adds (Man., i., p. 60), 

 that by 1857 it had become less abundant. It was then followed up 

 in Devonshire ; on June 17th, 1865, Bignell captured 36 specimens 

 near Plymouth, some much wasted (Ent., ii., p. 295), whilst the same 

 year with some friends, Gatcombe captured several dozens in the same 

 locality, at Bolt Head, and again many were taken in June, 1867 (Ent., 

 iv., p. 301), Bignell also gave directions as to reaching the locality, and 

 although occasionally a few specimens have since been taken, it is verv rare 

 there, or as Bignell puts it, "The haunts of L. avion at Bolt Head must be 

 looked upon as a thing of the past." During this same period, Gloucester- 

 shire was being closely worked for specimens. Marsden, Merrin, and 

 Watkins told the world their localities {Ent., iii., p. 314 ; iv., pp. 105, 

 120). It was first noticed June 17th, 1866, worked again in June, 

 1867, again in June, 1868, again in 1869, but was very abundant in 

 1870, somewhat irregular in appearance up to 1880, since which it has 

 been very scarce. In spite of this, collectors from London year by 

 year visited the spots which it had haunted, and in bad as well as 

 better seasons captured all they could find. Thus Goss, in 1890, 

 sought out three of the best known areas in which it was found, saw 

 five specimens and captured all. The destruction of the original 

 locality, near the Roman entrenchments, which has been cut up by 

 timber-hauling and quarrying, to say nothing of grazing and golfing, 

 is also suggestive. The species is now exceedingly rare in the Cots- 

 wolds. In 1893, the species was discovered in Cornwall, where it is 

 locally abundant ; it has been tremendously persecuted year by year 

 since its discovery, thousands of specimens having been captured, some 

 collectors going year after year, and accumulating hundreds for the 

 purpose of exchange. In spite of this we have only hitherto been 

 given the barest outline of its life-history — the egg (noted rather than 

 described by Newman in 1870), the newly-hatched larva (noted by 

 Porritt in 1870), an outline of the life-history of the larva previous to 

 hibernation (Frohawk), and the pupa, and a short description of the 

 full-fed larva (Kay ward and Frohawk). For the rest, a really detailed 

 scientific description of the early stages has only now been attempted 

 by Chapman, and its history in its last instar is still a desideratum, so 

 that we are still largely in arrears, so far as any exact knowledge of 

 this species is concerned, in our information concerning the early 

 stages and habits, especially in the last larval stage, of this species. 

 It has been suggested that a series of "bad" seasons have exterminated 

 the species in all its old haunts, but one feels convinced that the 

 average season for the last century has been little different from those 

 of the last 30 or even 100 centuries, and has little to do with it ; 

 except so far as the destruction by humans in bad seasons decreases its 

 chances enormously, and that the general spread of agriculture, 

 clearings of woods, increase in cattle, and other necessary concomitants 

 attending the growth of the population in England from 5,000,000 at 

 the end of the sixteenth century, 15,000,000 at the end of the 

 eighteenth, to 40,000,000 at the end of the nineteenth century, have 

 indirectly far more to do with the matter than we are inclined to allow. 

 Edwards (Jourii. Northcunp. Nat. Hist. Soc, 1891, no. 47) says that 

 "it was formerly plentiful in Barnwell Wold on wild heathy land, 

 where the wild thyme was abundant. Some years back the whole was 

 burnt up, destroying the foodplant, and now not a vestige of wild 



