District around Maldon , Essex. 
38 
Taking the butterflies first, it will be found that thirty- 
eight occur in the district. This is a very fan* proportion 
out of a total of sixty-six, which is the number contained in 
the British list; but which includes at least two extinct 
species, and two, if not more, that occasionally leave their 
continental homes and visit British shores. If we further 
ehminate extremely local species, such as M. cinxia, E. cassioj^e, 
Tliecla pruni, and several others, thirty-eight becomes a very 
good total for any single district. It is a total, however, to 
which I think it would be difficult to add a single species, as 
butterflies almost force themselves on one’s notice, and, 
except in the case of a very local insect like jV. lucina, are not 
likely to be overlooked. 
Considering the Diurni rather more in detail, we find that 
Papilio machaon, Vanessa c-album, T. antiopa, and Arge 
galathea are only stragglers. Mhen the first of these was 
taken at Maldon, in 1872, I had only just come to live in 
that part of Essex, and being imperfectly acquainted with 
the marshes that exist round Maldon I hazarded the con¬ 
jecture that macliaon might breed in the vicinity; but I have 
long ceased to believe in the probability of this. Vanessa 
antiopa occurred in the great “ antiopa year,’ when this 
butterfly was observed throughout the length and breadth of 
the land. The occurrence of a single specimen of Arge 
galathea is remarkable, and difficult of explanation. It is an 
insect naturally slow on the wing, and generally found in 
great numbers where it occurs. It was doubtless a straggler 
that visited Hazeleigh only under the compulsion of strong 
winds or other irresistible necessity. 
The two English representatives of the genus Colicis occur, 
sometimes in abundance, near Maldon. TV by they appear 
and disappear so suddenly has always been a puzzle to 
naturalists. That they come over in vast numbers from the 
Continent never seemed very probable to me, and the 
falsity of this theory was proved conclusively to myself by 
the capture of a deformed specimen of Colias hgale at W ood- % 
ham Mortimer in 1875. One of its wings was so distorted 
as to have made it impossible for the insect to have flovn 
D 
