( '5 ) 
X. 
LIST OF THE LEPIDOPTERA OF CHESHUNT AND ITS 
NEIGHBOURHOOD. 
By W. C. Boyd, E.S.A. 
Communicated by A. E. Gibbs, F.L.S. 
Read at Watford, 23 rd April, 1901. 
The following list of Lepidoptera is the result of 50 years’ 
observations in the vicinity of Cheshunt. No doubt I could have 
added a few more species had I been able to devote more time to 
collecting. Nevertheless, I think that it is a fair approximation 
to a complete catalogue of the Lepidoptera which occur in this 
neighbourhood. 
The neighbourhood of Cheshunt offers considerable advantages to 
the entomologist. On the east there is the long extent of marsh¬ 
land which runs from Hackney northwards to Hertford and Bishop’s 
Stortford, and on the north and west there are a good many woods, 
while at the Pollards near Wormley West End, on the north, there 
is a most excellent little patch of heather, mixed with Genista 
anglica , bracken, and bushes of oak and poplar. 
One thing has struck me very forcibly with regard to the 
distribution of the species, and that is how an insect (not usually 
local) may sometimes be common at one place and yet within a mile 
and a half may be practically absent. 
For instance, during the last 40 years I have sugared pretty 
regularly in three gardens, namely, at my father’s house in 
Cheshunt Street for 18 years; then three-quarters of a mile farther 
south, at College Hoad, for 14 years; and lastly, another half-mile 
farther south, in Crossbrook Street, for 9 years. Taking four 
well-known species, Hydroecia nictitans , Noctua umbrosa , Ancliocelis 
litura , and Hadena protea , I found that at Cheshunt Street 
N. umbrosa was fairly common, H. nictitans and H. protea were 
absent, and A. litura was represented by only two specimens; at 
College Hoad a few specimens of IT. protea and II. nictitans 
occurred, but I think not one of A. litura nor N. umbrosa ; 
while at Crossbrook Street there was any number of II. nictitans , 
A. litura, and H. protea , but not a single N. umbrosa. 
There are other species which are evidently of similar local 
occurrence, without, so far as I am aware, any reason for it in 
regard to soil or food-plant. 
The names in italics are those of varieties. 
KH0PAL0CEEA (Butterflies). 
Pieris 
brassicse.—C ommon. 
rapse.—Common, 
napi.—Common. 
Anthocharis 
cardamines.—Common. 
Gonepteryx 
rhamni.—Scarce. 
