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THE NATURALIST. 
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VOL. IV., NO. XXVII.—DECEMBER, 1838 , 
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE ARTAXERXES BUTTERFLY. 
(Volyommatus Artaxerxes , Fab.). 
By Henry Bhist. 
Perhaps the history of none of our British Butterflies is more interesting 
than that of the beautiful little “ Artaxerxes,” which (with the exception of the 
Arran Brown Butterfly Hipparchia ligea , for which no other British locality 
is known than the Island of Arran, where it was first found by the late Sir 
Patrick Walker and A. MacLeay, Esq.) is the only Butterfly found in 
Scotland that is not also met with in England. For a long period the only 
locality known for Volyommatus Artaxerxes was Arthur’s Seat, near Edinburgh, 
where it occurred in such plenty that all the English cabinets, and the principal 
foreign ones, were abundantly supplied from that locality. But since 1834-, when 
the meeting of the British Association was held in Edinburgh, I understand that 
scarcely a specimen is to be seen. I have, how r ever, heard of several having been 
taken this season. It was long much valued by English collectors, some of whom, 
we are informed by Donovan, were in the habit of placing a coloured drawing of 
the insect in a corner of their drawer that they might obtain credit for having an 
object of such rarity in their collection. Other collectors undertook a journey to 
Edinburgh (a journey neither so quickly nor so easily performed then as it is at 
the present day), chiefly with the view of procuring specimens. The description 
of Fabricius, who appears never to have seen a specimen, was taken from a 
drawing by Mr. Jones, of Chelsea. But as the taste for the study and collection 
of insects becomes more general, it is not to be wondered at that insects which 
formerly were considered rare should be found in other parts of the country. We 
now have the following localities in addition to Arthur’s Seat, viz., “ the Pentland 
Hills, Flisk, Fifeshire, near Queen’s-ferry, and in the vicinity of jardine Hall, 
Dumfriesshire.”* Since the publication of the above localities, we have the 
announcement of another in Charlesworth’s Magazine of Natural History^, 
* Jardine’s Naturalist's Library, Entomology, Yol. IXL, p, 246. 
VOL. IV.—NO. XXVII. R 
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