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THE INSECTS OF SARK 



BY MR. W. A. LUFF, F.E.S. 



The appearance of the Island of Sark from a distance, sur- 

 rounded as it is on all sides with high and rugged cliffs, with 

 very few sandj bays, leads us to expect a barren country ; 

 but on landing and penetrating into the interior we are 

 agreeably surprised to find, in place of a bleak and bare 

 tableland, that it is covered with fields and gardens, diver- 

 sified with trees and hedges and broken into beautiful valleys. 

 In some spots it is difficult to believe that one is on a small 

 islet only about three miles in length and one and a half miles 

 in width. 



Professor Ansted, in his work on the Channel Islands, 

 pu])lished in I860, says "there are no streams in the island ;" 

 he surely must have overlooked the very respectable stream 

 (for so small an island), running through the beautiful wooded 

 valley of Dixcart. There are also two or three smaller 

 streams which form the habitat of several of the scarcer 

 inspects. Sark has no large sandy commons such as exist in 

 the other islands of the Sarnian group, therefore insects 

 which are usually found in such districts are scarce or alto- 

 gether absent. 



The following list does not compare favourably with that 

 of Alderney, but I am convinced that if such an energetic 

 collector as Mr. E. D. Marquand were to reside in Sark and 

 work all through the year as he did in Alderney, it would be 

 nearly doubled. Most of the insects named in this list Avere 

 collected by me at various times during the summer months 

 only, the last occasion being from July 9th to 14th of this 

 year. Butterflies are very abundant, there being about the 

 same number of species as in Guernsey. It is a very inte- 

 resting fact that Argj/nnis aglaia (the Dark Green Fritillary) 

 which is so abundant in Sark is entirely absent from Guernsey, 

 and the evidence of its existence in Jerse}' and Alderney 

 rests on the capture of single specimens in each case. Two 

 specimens of the largest of the British Fritillaries, Arc/ynnis 

 pajjliia, were taken by the late Mrs. Boley thirty-six years 



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