afnralisf : 



A Penny Weekiy Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 31. 



MAY 29th, 1880. 



Vol. 1. 



REPUTED BRITISH 

 BUTTERFLIES. 



TO render our " British Butterflies" 

 as complete as possible, it is 

 necessary that we give some account 

 of those species that have been recorded 

 as British in error, or on the strength 

 of a stray specimen reaching our shores 

 by accident. In the early days of the 

 science, when Entomologists were few, 

 and means of communication much 

 less convenient than at present, an 

 error was easily committed. Much 

 less was known to begin with, and 

 when an erroneous record had been 

 made, it was not so easily corrected. 

 I When an Entomologist announced that 

 he had taken Papilio Blandina and 

 Ligea in the Isle of Arran, neither of 

 | them being recorded before, who was 

 * able to say that he had not done so, 

 or to suggest the possibility of the 

 female of one being mistaken for the 

 I other. Either species was likely enough 

 to occur, and the fact was that Blandina 

 had been taken, but the error was re- 

 corded along with the fact, and has 

 been copied into work after work almost 

 m to the present day, without any appa- 

 . rent verification of the statement. 



Without professing to give an account 

 of every error that has been committed 

 by Entomlogical writers, we will give 

 a short account of those species that 

 are called " Beputed" British Butter- 

 flies, or of which there are authentic 

 instances of specimens being taken in 

 Britain. 



We regret we cannot undertake to 

 give illustrations of these species, in 

 our monthly plates, for we wish only 

 i to figure there, such species as are 

 generally received as British. Should 

 anyone desire an illustration of these 

 species, we will furnish hand painted 

 figures of any of these Beputed Butter- 

 flies, uniform in size with the monthly 

 plates, for binding with the Y. N. or on 

 card, for fourpence each. They can 

 be sent with any number of the maga- 

 zine, and being hand painted, it does 

 not matter whether many or few are 

 ordered. 



We begin with 



PAPILIO PODALIKIUS, LINK 

 Though we have pointed out above that 

 errors were perpetuated by copying out of books 

 without verification, yet we must begin by 

 doing the same thing. The first writer to 

 which we have access who records this Butterfly 

 as British is Donovan, who does not <five it on 



