The county is rich in insects, especially as regards butterflies, moths, and beetles; but several of the first-named which have been caught in Somerset have not been recorded here. The black-veined white (_Pieris crataegi_), once a common insect, has disappeared within the last forty years, and the greasy fritillary (_Melitaea Artemis_)--another vanishing species--is now almost extinct. Neither insect can have been hunted down for the sake of its beauty or its rarity, and the reason for this disappearance is unknown. [Illustration: Spurge Hawk Moth, with Pupa and Caterpillar] As in the case of birds, the county is, from its position, a favourite alighting-place for insects coming from abroad. Between 1876 and 1890 large numbers of a very striking and beautiful American butterfly, _Danais plexippus_, appeared in England, having apparently crossed the Atlantic, and three specimens were caught in Devonshire. The Lulworth skipper (_Hesperia Actaeon_), a small butterfly which elsewhere is only found in Dorset, occurs along the south-east coast of this county. Moths are very abundant, and the first recorded British examples of several species were taken in Devonshire. About a hundred years ago, caterpillars of the spurge hawk-moth (_Deilephila euphorbiae_) were very plentiful on spurge plants growing among the sand-hills near Barnstaple. Many of these caterpillars were taken by naturalists, and were reared, and ultimately turned into perfect insects; although neither there nor anywhere else in our island was a wild example of this very beautiful moth ever seen alive. The spurge plants were long ago covered up by drifting sand, and the caterpillars were all destroyed. No other locality for them has been found in England, and as far as this country is concerned the spurge hawk-moth appears to be extinct.