The Comma Butterfly in England

Abstract

DR. DAWE'S observation serves to direct attention to a matter that is of considerable interest to students of the Lepidoptera of the British Isles in connexion with the distribution of Polygonia c-album. It is not an isolated one, for in 1928 a single example of the same species was noted in a garden at Twickenham, which is near Chiswick. The two records, however, provide an additional interest in the suggestion they contain that this butterfly may have established itself somewhere in the vicinity. Old records show that at the commencement of the nineteenth century the Comma was, if not actually common, at least widely distributed in Englahd and to be met with in most counties. Its numbers gradually dwindled, however, until, towards the end of the century, it had disappeared from all the southern and eastern counties. By about 1905 it was no longer to be found, with any certainty, outside the area comprised roughly by Monmouthshire, Worcestershire, and Hereford-shire, and seemed still to be rather on the wane. Records of its occurrence during the War years are somewhat scarce, but it was recorded from Eastbourne (1915), Kent (1916—last seen in 1899), Shropshire (abundant, 1917 and 1918), and Cheshire (1918). The Kentish and Eastbourne records are interesting as, taken in conjunction with others given below, they seem to suggest that the butterfly had in fact been maintaining itself somewhere in the south-east corner of England in spite of its apparent absence.