222 



BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



bushes. Nolcken notes that it was very abundant in 1867, at 

 Pichtendahl, resting on shrubs, but much preferring to sit on plants of 

 Rhamnus franyula. Constant notes the irregularity of its appearance,, 

 observing that, in Saone-et-Loire,the species is more common than Nord- 

 mannia acaciae, being particularly abundant in some years. Fuchs notes; 

 its great abundance in the Wisper district in 1868, when it flew abun- 

 dantly about the hedges near the villages, and appeared at the commence- 

 ment of June, the $ s appearing before the $ s, the later specimens of 

 the latter sex being on the wing with A T . ilicis. Glaser also notes it 

 as occurring at Giessen, with N. ilicis, both frequenting the bramble 

 flowers at the same time, or walking over the leaves of the blackthorn 

 bushes. At Frankfort-on-Oder its comparative abundance, flying 

 about plum-trees in gardens gregariously, is noted by Kretschmer, and 

 Stange says that it is practically a gregarious species at Halle. Near 

 Carlsbad, it was taken on bramble growing by the roadside (Becher). 

 In Carinthia, Hofner says that its habit is to fly singly about the 

 plum-trees in orchards. Lambillion says that, in Belgium, the 

 imagines love to rest on the leaves of bushes, and on flowers in the 

 bush-covered ground that borders woods, and one also finds it some- 

 times flying in fruit-gardens. He considers the species much easier 

 to capture than E. iv-album, as it does not fly so high. Blachier states 

 that, in Geneva, he has noticed its flight to be short, and not long 

 sustained, whilst Reverdin observes that it flies rapidly and whirlingly 

 around Primus spinosa, appearing to prefer rather high bushes, and to* 

 rest on the highest twigs. He adds that it appears to fly in an 

 analogous manner to Bitliys quercus, around the higher branches of 

 oaks. 



Habitats. — This insect is essentially a woodland species, loving the 

 sides of the open ridings, clearings, or the outskirts of woods, but not 

 despising thick sloe-hedges not far removed from woods, and even 

 gardens. From these haunts it flies to the most attractive flowers in 

 the near neighbourhood, flowering bushes of bramble, privet, Vibur- 

 num lantana, Symphoricarpus racemosus, valerian, thyme, marjoram , 

 etc. Dewar says tbat, in Monk's Wood, it most affects ridings by the 

 sides of which tall blackthorn hedges run, going hence to visit sunny 

 open spaces in the woods, where Viburnum lantana and privet are in 

 flower. N. C. Rothschild says that, at Ashton Wold, it is now very 

 local, occurring only in a few open places in the wood, the species 

 affecting the higher sloe-bushes, and straying off to privet bushes that 

 are in blossom. He thinks that improvement in forestry, i.e., increas- 

 ing the number of forest-trees to the acre at the expense of the under- 

 growth, the cutting down of bushes, abolishing open spaces in woods, 

 etc., are fatal to this species, and explain its disappearance from many 

 localities in Northants. It is certainly an exceedingly local species in 

 Britain, confined to a few English counties, almost all in the Mid- 

 lands, and only occurring at all freely in limited localities in 

 Bucks, Hunts, and Northampton. On the continent its localities are 

 also limited, and even more so in Asia, the species also failing almost 

 entirely both in the extreme north and south throughout the Palsearctic 

 area. Kane notes it as "very local throughout Europe, occurring in 

 clearings of woods, often resting on bushes, especially on those of Comus 

 sanguinea." In Belgium, Lambillion notes that it is confined to the 

 limestone district where sloe abounds. In Germany, it is recorded 



