240 
PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 
was due chiefly to the systematic search for its larva ; but it 
must be remembered that this view was not generally received 
at the time, and the opposite causes of floods and the burning 
off the surface growth of parts of the Fen were given in explanation. 
I might add to this sketch a note of Mr. Bond’s (communicated 
by Professor Newton), that in his experience the larvae were to 
be found only on those plants of the Rumex hydrolapathum which 
grew in water. The Butterfly was probably at one time distributed 
more widely over the area of fens draining into the Wash, since 
Mr. Dale records that in 1827 Haworth found it abundant at 
Bardolph Fen in Norfolk 
The next vanished species is Liparis clispar , the Gipsy Moth. 
This insect has been frequently a source of wonder to entomologists. 
Not only was it abundant at Whittlesea Mere, but also in our own 
fens, and its history in the county is summarised by Mr. C. G. 
Barrett in the “ List of Norfolk Lepidoptera ” published by this 
Society. 
How are we to account for the disappearance of an insect once 
occurring in the utmost profusion in more localities than one, and 
which has certainly not suffered at the hands of collectors'? No 
species is more easily reared, and thousands have been turned out, 
but, unless protection was given, they were speedily destroyed by 
birds. It is possible that this may have been the cause of its 
disappearance in a wild state, but it by no means follows, since a 
conspicuous larva freshly introduced to a district is very apt thus 
to attract the attention of birds. It must, however, be remembered 
that birds sometimes become educated to such habits, as seems to 
be the case with the nest-hunting proclivities of the Rook in the 
north of England, so much complained of in the ‘ Zoologist ’ of 
late years. I remember, too, to have heard that Mr. Doubleday, 
after keeping up a colony of Gdllimorplia dominula in his garden 
for several years, lost them all through the attentions of a pair of 
Great Tits. Still 1 am rather inclined to attribute the loss of our 
British colonies of L. dispar to climatic causes. The Moth is even 
hurtfully abundant in many parts of the Continent, and is bred in 
this country like the Silk-worm Moth as a domestic race. 1 found 
