174
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
specimen, but apparently the one before us was taken in Epping
Forest in 1879, whereas Newman's book was published in 1871.
There are the two small fritillaries, Argynnis selena and A.
euphrosyne, both taken in Monks Wood, Epping Forest, in
June 1878. As far as my knowledge goes both these species
have gone from the Forest without any apparent reason; never-
theless they are common enough in most woods in the South of
England, especially Euphrosyne.
There is a nice series of Melitaea athalia taken in Chattenden
Wood, North Kent, in the year 1874. This is another of our
disappearing British butterflies. It has probably gone from
Chattenden since about the year 1878, and from the woods
round Colchester at an even earlier date. I was recently told
by Mr. Harwood, the well-known entomologist, that his father
used to take the insect in all the woods between Ipswich and
Colchester, when a young man, but at the present day there is
not one to be seen in any of them. However, the insect seems to
have taken a new lease of life in some of the woods of East
Kent, the exact locality not being known to me, but I have ample
evidence that it occurs in numbers. Possibly in time it may
re-occupy abandoned territory in Essex.
Theela betulae was for many years one of the special butterflies
of Epping Forest. The series in the collection was taken in 1868
and 1875. I think it was in the year 1897 that I heard of the
last being taken in the Forest. For the last eight years I have
made efforts (possibly somewhat feeble) to beat out the larvae
but without success. In the year 1881, on Staples Hill, in the
Forest, I took it in fair abundance. It is difficult to account
for the disappearance of this insect.
Turning to the "Blues" there is a nice variety of Icarus
(underside) taken in Epping Forest in June 1872, and a very
interesting series of AEgon including a fine gynandromorph speci-
men, all taken at High Beach in 1868. This is yet another
species which has left Epping Forest, and like that of so many
others its absence would rather point to the contaminating
influence of smoke than to anything else.
Perhaps some remarks may be made concerning the two
"Skippers," Hesperia linea from Epping Forest, and H. lineola
from St. Osyth. The latter, although known on the Continent,
was first discovered as a British species by Mr. Hawes, on the
coast of Essex, near Shoeburyness, in 1888. For a long time it
was thought that we only possessed the one species Linea ; in
fact an entomological friend of mine, who had collected in Essex
some twenty years before 1888, found, when examining his series
of Linea, that some were really Lineola and they had been resting
in his cabinet for years unnoticed. In many ways the habits
of the two species are very similar, and on the Essex marshes
they are frequently taken flying together; but the range of