Plate III. A purple hairstreak butterfly from Chingford. This is the only
butterfly whose caterpillar feeds on Oak, It is fairly widespread in the Forest.
Photo David Corke.
collectors; English (1886) records it for 1839, but his localities lie outside the
Forest to the east.
Nymphalidae (45). Ladoga camilla (white admiral) was unknown to
Doubleday; its foodplant, honeysuckle, is uncommon and it is only a straggler
to the Forest. One was noted in 1932 (Firmin et al, 1975) and another in 1960
(Corke, 1968) Apatura iris (purple emperor) was regarded by Doubleday as a
great rarity; he encountered it only once, though he knew of several other
reliable sightings. Vanessa atalanta (red admiral); Cynthia cardui (painted
lady); Aglais urticae (small tortoiseshell). Nymphalis polychloros (large tor-
toiseshell) was considered to be increasing in numbers by Cole (1897); now it is
one of Britain's rarest butterflies and was last seen in the Forest on the 28th of
March, 1948. N. antiopa (Camberwell beauty) is an erratic immigrant; the
latest sighting was on the 7th of September, 1976 at Loughton by Mr D. J.
Carter of the British Museum (Natural History). Inachis io (peacock). Polygonia
c-album (comma) has an interesting history. It occurred "in profusion" in
Doubleday's boyhood but disappeared inexplicably in about 1820. It was more
than a century before it returned, but now it is to be seen regularly. The
fritillaries have recently become rare over much of Britain and some may be
extinct in Essex. Their decline in Epping Forest may be due to a scarcity of wild
violets (Viola spp) the foodplant of most of them. This is conjectural, because
there is no evidence on which to compare the past and present status of violets;
however, they are now rare except in a secluded locality in the north and I am
38