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BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



4 p.m. and 5 p.m., the butterflies at the time sitting quite motionless 

 thereon, and the whole of the specimens observed being $ s. 

 Voelschow considered that they must have been attracted from some 

 distance, as there were no elms in the near vicinity. Bromilow notes 

 that, at Nice, he captured a $ on June 10th, 1892, on a plant of 

 marguerite daisy in flower, but the species, he adds, is rare here, owing 

 to the scarcity of elms. Kondou notes that, in the French Pyrenees, 

 it occurs on the flowers of bramble, Lathy r us pratensis, etc. Although 

 our observations go to show that it usually ascends into the tall trees 

 in its vicinity to roost, we once saw a single example on the grass 

 beneath an elm-tree, one of a long avenue, in the early morning, 

 possibly it had been disturbed and dropped when freshly-emerged, and 

 Griffith notes that at Morbihan, he has found it on bramble-flowers, 

 and also very often, both morning and evening, on the ground under 

 the elm-trees, so torpid, that it has been easy to take it with the 

 fingers. In Geneva, Blachier says it sometimes settles on the mire 

 of the roads and on the trunks of the elms. 



Habitat. — This appears to be an exceedingly local species, its 

 habitats largely confined to wooded areas, yet it exists from the 

 Atlantic Ocean (Wales) in the west, to the Pacific Ocean (Japan) in 

 the east, and from the Mediterranean (Sicily and Corfu) to Scandi- 

 navia — Westmannland 60°N.lat. (Dalman). In Britain, its distribution 

 would appear to be limited, even in the districts it frequents, to the 

 growth of the wych-elm, by far its favourite food. It appears, for 

 example, to occur through Kent, Essex, Herts, Suffolk, Bucks, Surrey, 

 Hereford, Gloucester, Glamorgan, Monmouth, Northampton, Notting- 

 ham, Leicestershire, etc., wherever the wych-elm appears, and possibly 

 it occurs similarly in many other English counties. Although usually 

 stated to be confined to a woodland habitat — forests, woods, and parks — 

 it is often found in gardens where elm-trees border them, and even in 

 the midst of towns where there are avenues of their favourite tree, 

 whilst, in other places, it occurs in woods chiefly of other trees, where, 

 however, wych-elm is occasionally found. On the continent, it is not 

 generally considered to be a mountain species, and rarely occurs at a 

 greater elevation than 3000ft., although there are some exceptions, 

 e.g., we found it ourselves on a few isolated wych-elms, between Alios 

 and the Lac d'Allos in the Basses-Alpes, at fully 5500ft ; whilst Keynes 

 records it on the slopes of Pilatus, between Hergiswyl and the summit; 

 it is also recorded by Miss Fountaine from the mountains above Buda. 

 In the east, it appears to be confined to the lowlands, rarely going 

 above 2000ft. in Austria, whilst in Bosnia and Hercegovina it never 

 exceeds 3000ft., and is there rare and local ; in Bulgaria, it occurs on 

 the Vitos mountains (Rebel). Mrs. Nicholl notes its occurrence at 

 Jablanica, in the Narenta Valley, by the railway-banks, which here 

 present a delightful tangle of fragrant weeds and bushes, especially 

 easily worked from the high road, which runs close to the line ; it was 

 also found on the Igman, a wooded mountain, 4000ft. high, near Illidze. 

 In Belgium, it chiefly frequents retired ridings in woods, parks where 

 there are old elm-trees, and is sometimes to be seen flying along hedges 

 by the sides of the roads lined with avenues of elm-trees, or settling on 

 flowers by the hedgesides, etc. (Lambillion); it occurs in most of the 

 large forests, e.g., the Foret de Soignes, etc. (Donckier). In France, 

 it has occurred to us in two widely different localities. In the heart 



