NOTES ON SOME LINCOLNSHIRE LEPIDOPTERA. 

 By F. Arnold Lees, F.L.S. 



As this county is almost unworked entomologically, the following 

 items may not be without interest, and furnish a link in the chain of 

 the comital distribution of some species, for those students who are 

 accumulating the facts, upon a multitude of which generalisation can 

 only be safely ventured upon. As a medical man, up and about 

 almost everywhere, and at all times of the day, my opportunities for 

 observation are manifold, although my chances of collecting for the 

 cabinet are few. The following notes refer exclusively to the district 

 lying within six miles of Market-Rasen as a centre. 



I. The Butterflies. — To the widespread abundance of CoUas Edusa 

 this year, this district proves no exception. Up to the date of the 

 Goole gathering I had not observed any of the first, or hybernated 

 brood, I suppose ; but within a few days afterwards I noted a single 

 specimen fly past me along a lane near Lissington. Since then it has 

 become somewhat abundant, and within the first week of September I 

 have seen hundreds. Just now Edusa is commoner in the lanes on all 

 sides of this town than any other butterfly, except Satyrus megcera^ 

 which literally swarms. Earlier in the season Gonepteryx Rhamni was 

 very plentiful (its food-plant par excellence, the purging buckthorn, is 

 everywhere very plentiful), and Ay^ge GalatJtea, by no means rare. Of 

 the Fritillaries I have seen only Aglaia, Selene, and PapJiia so far, and 

 none of them commonly. LeucopJiasia simpis I have seen only twice, 

 when strolling through Kingerby Wood, five miles from here. 8. 

 Semele I noted in some plenty on the chalk-wold near Thoresway, 

 during a ramble with the Rev. W. Fowler in July ; I have not seen 

 it nearer than that. Of the blues, ^Zm's, Agestis, and one ^gon on 

 Linwood Warren, are all I have noticed. Of the Hesperidee, both 

 Sylvanus and Linea are not uncommon, though apparently local. Of 

 the Vanessidae, C. cardui was plentiful earlier on, and just now 

 Atalanta and lo are frequently to be seen. V. urticcB is frequent ; and 

 on the 15th September, after a long chase, I captured a magnificent 

 V. polycJiloros with my hat. These, with the three commoner 

 " vvhites," Thecla rubi (scarce), and the ubiquitous Janira, Tithonus, 

 C. pampMlus upon the heathy ground, and G. phlceas in boggy places, 

 •complete the list, so far as I yet know, of the Rhopalocera around. 

 Rasen. 



N. S., YoL. III., Dec, 1877. 



