THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



395 



I obtained a very good specimen of C. exoleta. 

 It is the second that has been taken in this 

 district. The first was taken three years ago, 

 at the same place, as 1 am informed by Mr. 

 John Firth, with whom I work. — Geo. Green- 

 wood, 11, Tilford Street, Bradford. 



Captures at Liverpool. — Dr ing the last 

 few days I have taken the following insects at 

 Sugar : — Othosia lota in abundance, at "Wallasey. 

 Anchocelis litural Anchocelis pistacina, Miselia 

 ozyacantkee f / Xanthia ferruginea ! / Oerastis 

 Vaccinii, Agrotis Suffusa. I have found insects 

 of all kinds very scarce : hardly anything (ex- 

 cept earwigs) turning up after the first round of 

 the Sugar. I was present at Wallasey when 

 my friend Mr. Curzon took a splendid female 

 C. fiaviaia ( geomniaria J, recorded, I expect, by 

 him in this week's Y. X.— J. W. Ellis, Liver- 

 pool. 



REPUTED BRITISH 

 BUTTERFLIES. 



3 — ARGYNNIS NIOBE, Linn. 



We do not know when this species was first 

 added to the British list, but Curtis enumerates 

 it among the members of the genus with the 

 following remarks : 



" Godart thinks this is the P. Adippe of 

 Linnaeus ; and the same opinion might lead 

 Stewart to record it as a British insect. Dr. 

 Abbott's English Collection contained a 

 specimen, which Mr. Dale now possesses ; and 

 as it is found in Sweden and the South of 

 France, there is nothing unreasonable in 

 believing that it may occasionally make its 

 appearance in this Island. The caterpillar 

 feeds on the violet and plantain." 



It is no great wonder thai it has been 

 reputed to be found in England, for it so 

 «losely resembles both Adippe an 1 Aglaia that 

 one might very readily be mi .aken for the 

 other. Specimens said by the highest 

 authority to be Niobe have undoubtedly been 

 taken in England. Besides that recorded by 

 Curtis, a second is recorded in the Entomologist 



Vol. VI, page 351, taken by Mr. Gerrard, of 

 j Lyndhurst in the New Forest, in 1878, and a 

 third on page 83, Vol. VIII, of the same 

 Magazine, taken by Mr. S. C. Gregson, in 

 August, 1S71, at the Devil's Gallop, near 

 Windermere. A more extensive capture of 

 the species was said to have been made in 

 1874, in a wild gorge, in Kent, between Wye 

 and Ashford. We will relate the history of 

 the matter as briefly as possible, that beginners 

 may learn something of the tricks that un- 

 scrupulons men practise. In July, 1874, a pair 

 of Argynnis Niobe were sent to the late Henry 

 Doubieday said to have been taken as above. 

 Mr. Doubleday' said they were undoubtedly 

 Niobe, that one was alive when it reached him, 

 and that the other was dead, but not stiff, that 

 they could not possibly have been in that 

 state if they had travelled from the continent, 

 and that "there was no doubt whatever that these 

 two specimens were taken in Kent." Mr. Newman, 

 to whom a specimen was also sent, did not 

 doubt either, asked for more information, and 

 propo ed to have figures of the pair engraved 

 for publication. More information, was 

 afforded, though the exact locality was not 

 divulged, nor was anything said 

 as to the number taken. A living 

 specimen was sent to Mr. S. Stevens, who 

 also appeared to believe in its authenticity, 

 and said that it had evidently been taken on 

 the wing and was in very different condition 

 to a bred specimen. With Messrs. Double- 

 day, Newman, and Stevens, as its sponsors, 

 Niobe was offered in exchange and sold to 

 every one who had valuable insects or cash to 

 spare, and for a f ime the specimens (dis)- 

 graced the cabinets of many Entomologists. 

 The person who first recorded it, figured in 

 succeeding numbers of the Entomologist as tak- 

 ing Centonalis 7 which was offered for exchange 

 and Lathonia, sent alive to Mr. Newman. 

 Another well-known collector who also knew 

 the reputed Niobe locality, and had the species 

 to spare, took Lathonia in some numbers, and 

 also C. Fraxini, which as usual was shown alive. 

 In the last number of the Entomologist for that 



