The Butterflies of the British IslesSouth, Richard
Science
The Butterflies of the British Isles
South, Richard
Butterflies -- Great Britain; Butterflies -- Great Britain -- Identification; Lepidoptera -- Great Britain
This butterfly appears to have first attracted the attention of the
earlier British entomologists about the middle of the eighteenth
century. Stephens, writing in 1827, remarks that "about sixty years
since it appeared in such prodigious numbers throughout the kingdom,
that the entomologists of that day gave it the appellation of the Grand
Surprise." Harris figured the butterfly under the name mentioned by
Stephens, and it has also been referred to by others as the "Willow
Beauty" and the "White Petticoat." Newman called it the
"White-bordered;" and from this, as well as from his description of the
butterfly, it would seem that he had not seen any specimen, caught in
Britain, with ochreous borders. Such specimens have most certainly been
captured in these islands, and occasionally in some numbers, as, for
example, in the autumns of 1872 and 1880. In the former year the
butterflies were seen or taken in a great many parts of the kingdom. The
single specimens that are taken now and then in the spring have
hibernated, and possibly they may have just come over from the
Continent. It is, however, equally possible that they may have arrived
in the country the previous autumn and passed the winter here. After the
invasion in the autumn of 1872, specimens were observed in January,
March, and April, 1873, at places widely apart. In 1881 single specimens
were taken in April in Surrey, Kent, and Brecknockshire; and in Essex
and at Hampstead in August. One or two specimens were taken in the
summer or autumn of the years 1884 to 1887 inclusive. In 1888 two were
captured in Essex in May; and in August, three in Kent, one each Surrey,
Hants, and Isle of Wight; and one in Kent in September. In 1889 a
specimen was taken in Surrey in April, one in Kent, and one in Cambs in
May; a few also in the autumn of that year. In 1891 a specimen was seen
at Balham in September. In 1893 one was taken in Epping Forest in April,
and one in South Devon in August. Single specimens were noted in
Oxfordshire, Lincolnshire, Berwick, and the Isle of Skye, in September,
1896, and one at Epsom in December of that year. In 1897 one was
recorded from Yorks (August), and one from Norfolk (September); and in
May, 1898, one was taken at Norwich. One or two were observed in August
or September, 1898 and 1899; and in 1900 there seems to have been an
invasion, on a small scale, of this butterfly in August into some of the
eastern and southern counties of England. It extended westward to
Somersetshire, and northward to Roxburghshire. A few were taken in
various southern localities, including south-east and north London, in
August and September of 1901. A specimen occurred in the Isle of Wight
in September, 1903, and one in September, 1904; and in the latter year
one was captured in August at Raynes Park in Surrey. In 1905 one
butterfly was taken at Harrow, Middlesex, on July 27; one at Norwich on
August 26, and one in Suffolk on September 29.
[Illustration: _Pl._ 42.
=Camberwell Beauty.=
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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