ST. ALBANS AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 
237 
early part of the last century, of species which have long since dis¬ 
appeared from their old haunts, including among the Ehopalocera, 
for instance, such butterflies as Apatura iris and Vanessa c-album, 
which we can hardly hope will occur again. We can, however, 
boast of having received a visit in recent years from another rare 
diurnal, Vanessa antiopa, a specimen having been taken in the 
Hatfield Eoad School, in the centre of the city, in 1900, and 
there are one or two other records of it having occurred in the 
neighbourhood of St. Albans. Butterflies which have been 
caught in our district include Colias hyale, C. edusa, Brenthis 
selene, B. euphrosyne, Argynnis paphia , A. adippe, Vanessa 
polychloros, V. cardui, Theda w-album, T. quercus, Lycsena 
argiolus, and L. corydon, the last-named on a farm many miles 
from its usual habitat on the chalk downs, it being very 
abundant on the Chilterns in the north-west of the county. 
Turning to the Heterocera, our largest Sphingid, Acherontia 
atropos , the death’s-head moth, is occasionally seen, sometimes 
at rest on posts, etc., but more frequently in the larval or pupal 
stage in potato fields, where it is found when the crop is being 
harvested. In some years the convolvulus hawk-moth ( Sphinx 
convolvuli) appears in small numbers. The two elephant hawk- 
moths are also present. The larvae of the larger one, Chcerocampa 
elpenor, is sometimes abundant along the river-side at Colney 
Heath, feeding on willow-herbs and water-betony, and is seen 
now and again in gardens on fuchsia and vine. The smaller 
species, C. porcellus, is less frequently met with in the district, 
its head-quarters being on the chalk hills, where the larvae 
feed on the yellow galium. Of the clearwings, Macroglossa 
bombyliformis, Trochilium apiformis, T. crabroniformis, Sesia 
asiliformis, and S. tipuliformis occur, but only the last-named 
can be said to be common. 
The best hunting-ground in the neighbourhood of St. Albans 
is undoubtedly Bricket Wood, a large stretch of timbered land, 
probably a survival of the primaeval forest which once covered 
this part of Britain. The trees are mostly oaks, the sub-soil 
being boulder-clay. Around these woods, especially along the 
railway-line, there are many sallow-bushes, which in the early 
spring offer a tempting bait to the catkin-haunting Noctuae. 
Indeed, all the British species of the genus Tseniocampa, except 
T. opima, which can scarcely be expected, occur, it being one 
of the few Hertfordshire localities for the beautiful T. miniosa. 
The wood used to be a good sugaring-ground, but of late years 
the bait does not appear to allure the large numbers of “ peach- 
blossoms ” and other attractive species which used to reward the 
night worker. Dusking in this and other Hertfordshire wood¬ 
lands and the country lanes often proves very remunerative, for 
many interesting geometers have been taken in this way. 
The Micro-lepidoptera of the neighbourhood have not received 
so much attention as they deserve, but the record-books show 
that 149 out of the 343 species of Tortrices given in South’s list 
