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THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



28. LyCjENA Arion. — Mr. Decie confidently expects this to widen its now- 

 restricted range in the next few years. May his ff great expectations If be 

 realized, though 1 fear the wish is father to the thought. 



29. Hesperia Sylvanus. — No one confirms my remark on this species. 

 Mr. Clifford finds it as common as it was thirty years ago. It is gone from 

 here anyhow. 



30. Hesperia Linea. — Mr. Clifford calls attention lo the fact that New- 

 man in his " British Butterflies/' noted that this species had gone from many 

 of its old localities, and adds that it is much less common in Kent. 



The list of species, therefore, that are presumably disappearing has increased 

 to 30, though I have omitted Thecla pruni, which will probably be restored 

 to the list, when some one who has taken it communicates, Lycmna 

 acis seems gone altogether, but may turn up again, and for the pres- 

 ent, at anyrate, Polyommatus hippotlwe may stand alone as extinct. The 

 immigrants that do not breed here do not seem to require any addition. The 

 fact that single specimens of one or other of them has now and again bred 

 here does not militate against the general conclusion. Both larva and perfect 

 insect of Danais chrysippus have occurred in England, but no one thinks of 

 adding it to our lists, although it is one of the likeliest species to establish 

 itself, being world-wide in distribution, and of strong migratory habits. 

 As an immigrant that breeds here but seems unable to perpetuate its race, I 

 am inclined to place Pyrameis cardui. Its periodic abundance and recurrent 

 scarcity or disappearance, like the two Clouded Yellows, seems to be explain- 

 able on no other hypothesis. That it does migrate in large numbers is well 

 known. But there will not be many to agree with me in placing it here I 

 doubt. The other two headings are the same, only differing in degree. 



The bulk of the readers of the Young Naturalist are beginners, without 

 the long experience that can give us dates back to 1815 and 1816, as Mr. 

 Dale does from his father's diary. If the subject is to be pursued further, 

 might I ask all our readers to communicate anything they have observed, or 

 know from others, and if they would give periodical reports of the abundance 

 or scarcity of all the butterflies they take, we would soon have a mass of 

 information from which correct conclusions could be drawn. The worst of 

 it is that collectors are so apt to think their notes not worth publishing. 

 This is a great and growing evil, and those of us who remember the immense 

 impetus given by the publication of the Weekly Intelligencer, would gladly 

 see notes and captures in much larger proportion than we get them in 

 any of the magazines. 



