Page:VCH Cornwall 1.djvu/257

 INSECTS among them has obtained all forms recorded in Newman, including the form approaching ichnusa, the banded form approaching the Japanese connexa, and the remarkable abnormal form No. 3. The Peacock (V. to) is common throughout the county and in some years is locally very abundant. It varies much in size. At one particular spot in the Liskeard district a very small form has been taken four seasons out of the last five which Staudinger accepted as the variety iaides. Spiller has taken an aberration at Godolphin with the right fore-wing fawn-coloured. The Camberwell Beauty (V. antiopa] has been twice taken in the county. In the beginning of June, 1832, F. Holmes, Oxford, captured a weather-beaten specimen at Tregothnan, details of which will be found in the first volume of The Ibis. On 2 January, 1901, T. J. Porter of Hayle, when out shooting on Higher Spargo in Mabe, caught a fine specimen with his cap in the field called Sunny Corner. Charles Fox of Trebah, in the adjoining parish of Constantine, saw a Camber- well Beauty in his grounds many years ago, and another appears to have been seen in the valley of the Fowey above Lostwithiel. The Red Admiral (V. atalanta) is common and generally distributed save on the moorland. In some autumns it is locally most abundant. In the first week of October, 1902, there must have been over four hundred at one time in a neglected orchard near Callington. This glorious sight lasted for several days. One calm sunny afternoon that same autumn there were two or three hundred at the ivy blossom on Launceston Castle. The fitful and erratic Painted Lady (A. carduii) was plentiful over the greater part of the county up till a few years ago, but lately has become scarce, at least in the south and west of the county. In a good year it is still common about Poundstock and Millook, and one rarely sees a clump of Hemp Agrimony without one of these beautiful insects in attendance. In July, 1903, it was very common on St. Mary's, Scilly. In 1894 Spiller found several hundreds at Tremearne Cliffs that had just arrived from the south-east, with a few stragglers still coming in from the sea. They had a washed-out appearance and were much exhausted, as they allowed themselves to be picked up off the grass without resistance. They seemed to rest as well on the water as on land. Of the three authenticated specimens of the American F. huntera captured in England, one in beautiful condition was taken by Miss C. L. Pole-Carew on 20 September, 1876, at Antony, near Tor Point, and recorded by Bignell in The Entomologist, ix, 255. There is no doubt it was an accidental introduction. The White Admiral (Limenitis sybil/a) appears to have been common at Godolphin early last century; but R. James, writing from Penzance to W. P. Cocks of Falmouth in 1849, says he had not seen one for nearly twenty years. The capture of two specimens of Danais archippus in the south of England in 1876 drew the attention of most entomologists to the extraordinary world-wide immigration of this American species. On 21 September, 1885, R. J. Anderson saw two and captured one at Trevilley, near the Land's End (Entomologist, xviii, 290). On 17, 24, and 29 of the same month A. H. Jenkin took three and saw a fourth near the Lizard, and Miss Rogers captured one at Penzance a few days later in the same year. In August, 1886, one was taken at the Lizard. Since that date no further occurrences have been recorded for the county, and the last appearance of the insect in England was in October, 1890. There seems to be no doubt that the specimens taken were all genuine emigrants and not cases of 'assisted passage.' The occurrence of the Purple Emperor (Apatura iris) in the county rests on its reputed capture by a railway official near Bodmin some years ago, but the writer has not been able to trace either captor or specimen. The Marbled White (Melanargia galatea) is confined to very restricted areas within which it is in some seasons common. It has been established in Werrington Park, Launceston, for at least fifty years, and in 1901 was unusually plentiful there. Bignell found it at Penhale, Egloskerry, in 1882, and it was taken there in 1899. At one particular spot on the Trebartha estate it is in most years quite common. In and about 1875 there was a flourishing colony at Trerice, Newlyn East, but it entirely disappeared many years ago, though two examples were captured in the valley , of the Gannel in 1902. This appears to have been its most westerly settlement in the county. Stray specimens have at long intervals been recorded from the south of the county from St. Germans to Par, and in 1905 a sadly battered female was taken near Falmouth. The Speckled Wood (Pararge egeria) is common and in many places abundant throughout the county except on the moors. It is plentiful in almost every shady lane and round the shaded margins of most of the woods in the east and middle, and more generally diffused in the west. It does not seem to have been previously recorded from Scilly, but was taken on a wall near Great Grimsby, Tresco, in April, 1903. There are three and occasionally four emergences in the year, the first brood frequently appearing about Godolphin and Penzance before the end of March. The sun-loving Wall (P. megaera) is common all over the county, and is the roadside butterfly par excellence. The sunny side of the Cornish hedgebanks suits it admirably, and it is often plentiful on warm dry grass, on sheltered sunny hillsides, and around protected coves on 205