Pl. 118.
1, 3 Common Blue vars., male; 6 do. female.
2, 5, 8, 11 Adonis Blue vars., male; 4, 7, do. female.
9, 10 Chalkhill Blue vars., female; 12 do. male.
Pl. 119.
1, 2, 3 Small Copper vars.; 4 Adonis Blue var.
5 Common Blue var.; 6, 7, 8 Gatekeeper vars.
The eggs of this species are to be found at the end of May on the under sides of the leaves of the cowslip (Primula veris), sometimes as many as ten on one leaf, but as a rule there will only be one or two on a plant. When laid, the egg is very glassy in appearance, but it gradually turns to a pinkish-grey; and when the caterpillar is formed inside, the shell becomes transparent, and its occupant can be clearly seen. It eats a considerable portion of the shell in making its exit therefrom, and afterwards consumes the remainder of the shell. When in its last skin the caterpillar is brown, covered with short whitish hair, among which are some longer dark brown or blackish hairs; the lines on the back and sides are blackish, and there are black dots on the front part of each segment or ring. Head, honey brown, notched on the crown; eyes and jaws, brownish. It feeds from June to August on cowslip, but will also eat primrose (Primula vulgaris), and hides among dead and withered leaves beneath the food-plant (Plate 121).
The chrysalis is pale whity-brown, hairy above, with black dots; head and the upper edge of the wing-cases streaked with black.
Occasionally a few butterflies emerge in August, but they usually remain in the chrysalis until May or June.
This is a woodland species, and prefers the sunny but sheltered nooks and glades, but also resorts to the broader rides and pathways. Flowers do not seem to have any strong attraction for it, but it may often be seen sitting on the foliage of a bush or sapling tree. It appears to be pretty widely distributed, although to a certain extent local, throughout the southern half of England, but seems to have almost or quite disappeared from the counties of Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, and Essex. Dumfries is the only locality in Scotland from which it has been reported.
Its distribution abroad is limited to Central Europe, Denmark, Livonia, Southern Sweden, Central Spain, North Italy, and the Balkans.
Now follow the Skippers (Hesperiidæ), of which kind of butterfly we have eight species in England. Of these the first two belong to the Hesperiinæ and the others to the Pamphilinæ.
The wings of the butterfly figured on Plate 122 are blackish, ornamented with numerous white spots, which are more or less square in shape, on the fore wings. The fringes are chequered black and white.
The male differs from the female in having the front edge of the fore wings folded towards the base, and these wings have scattered greyish scales on the basal area; the central series of spots on the hind wings are also more in evidence, and not infrequently unite and become band-like. Variation consists in modification of the markings, chiefly in a tendency of the spots to run together, culminating in var. taras, Bergstr., in which the white spots of the fore wings are confluent and form a large blotch. This variety was figured by Petiver in 1717, but was not named by Bergsträsser until 1780. Haworth described it as lavateræ, and Newman figured it under the same name.
On a small plant of Alpine strawberry, sent by the Rev. Gilbert Raynor, were three eggs of this butterfly. These were pale green in colour, ribbed, and delicately netted with cross-lines. On June 26, three caterpillars were noticed on the upper side of the leaves, each on a separate leaf, and under cover of a few coarse silken threads. They were pale steely-grey, with black heads, and plates on the first and last segments of the body.
As the supply of strawberry foliage was failing, the caterpillars were given bramble on July 21, and the next day each was found enclosed in a sort of envelope formed of a bramble leaf. They were then seemingly in their last skin, whitish-green in colour, and covered with short whitish hair; a whitish edged dark olive-brown line along the back, and similar lines on the sides; between the rings the colour was pale ochreous. The date of pupation was not noted, but on September 9, one of the spun-together bramble leaves was opened, and a chrysalis found within. This was pale brown, with dark brown or blackish marks along the back and sides; the head and back were covered with dense pale reddish-brown bristles; the wing, leg, and antennæ cases were greenish, smooth, and shaded with brownish. Between the head and first ring of the body above there was a deep furrow, with a black-centred white spot on each side of it (Plate 123).
Pl. 120.
Duke of Burgundy Fritillary. 1, 2, 4 male; 3, 5 female.
Milkweed Butterfly. 6 male.
Pl. 121.
Duke of Burgundy Fritillary.
Egg enlarged; caterpillar and chrysalis.
Besides the plants adverted to above, the caterpillars will eat raspberry (Rubus idæus) and cinquefoil (Potentilla fragariastrum and P. reptans).
The butterfly is pretty generally distributed in Great Britain, but does not seem to be common in Ireland, as Kane only mentions two examples, from Killarney. It is found in May and June on chalk downs and other hillsides, especially in the hollows and sheltered nooks, also in and around woods, and in rough fields. On dull days and at night it may be found sitting, with the wings erect over the back, on various seed-heads, etc.
The species is double brooded on the Continent, and occasionally a few butterflies will appear in August, but such emergences depend on a combination of favourable circumstances. In very forward seasons it has been seen on the wing during the last week in April.
Its range extends over Europe and into Northern Asia.
As Barrett refers to the capture in Norfolk (May or June, 1860) of several specimens of the Central and South European species, H. alveus, Hüb., it maybe well to mention it here, if only for the purpose of quoting his remarks thereon. After detailing the facts connected with the occurrence, he states, "It seems undesirable now to introduce the species to a place in the British list, but rather to record the captures in question as specimens accidentally introduced with plants, or else the result of a very exceptional act of migration."
The wings are fuscous, with darker fuscous transverse bands on the middle third of the fore wings; the space between these is sometimes, and in both sexes, whitish; there are some whitish spots on the outer band, usually towards the costa, but occasionally on the middle also, and a series of white points on the outer margin of all the wings. The hind wings have a whitish discal dot and a band beyond the middle, which is almost parallel with the outer margin. The male has a well-marked fold on the costa (Plate 122).
The egg is whitish-green when freshly laid; it afterwards changes in colour to orange. The caterpillar is yellowish-green with a darker line along the back and a paler line on each side; the spiracles are red and edged with whitish. The head is pale brown, striped and marked with purplish-black. The body, together with the head, is covered with a short whitish pile. It feeds on bird's-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) from June until August, when it hibernates. I have not seen the chrysalis, but it has been described as dark green with the body tinged with rosy red.
The butterfly is on the wing in May and June; in some seasons it has been seen as early as the end of April. Very occasionally, perhaps, there is a partial second flight in August. It has been reported as plentiful at Lyme Regis in August.
I took one or two specimens about the middle of August, 1903, in the New Forest district, and in the same month of 1905 one of two caterpillars sent to me by Dr. Chapman pupated in August, and the butterfly emerged some time in the autumn, as I found it dead in the box early in October. Both the caterpillars had spun together sprays of the food-plant as shown in the figure, Plate 123. One was removed for its portrait to be taken, and it was supposed that the other bundle contained a caterpillar also, and was not examined.
Pl. 122.
Grizzled Skipper. 1, 2, 7 male; 4, 5, 8 female; 3 var. male; 6 do. female.
Dingy Skipper. 9, 10, 12 male; 11, 13, 14 female.
Dingy Skipper.
Eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillar and its shelter.
Pl. 123.
Grizzled Skipper.
Eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillar and shelter; chrysalis in cocoon.
The butterfly affects open places in, or the edges of, woods in chalky districts, also the slopes of chalk downs and other hillsides, as well as railway banks and even rough fields. It evidently delights in sunshine, and may often be seen basking on a stone or the bare earth. When at rest at night or on dull days it sits on a dead seed-head or grass glume, with the wings closed down over its back like a noctuid moth, and is then difficult to detect until the eye becomes accustomed to its appearance. It is widely distributed in Great Britain, but it is more at home on chalk and limestone than elsewhere. In such localities as the fens of Norfolk and Cambridge it is scarce, and seems to have a rather limited distribution in Ireland, in which country Galway is its headquarters, according to Kane.
Abroad, it is found throughout Europe, and its range extends to Western Asia.
All the wings are brownish-orange, with the veins darker and becoming black towards the outer margins, especially on the fore wings. The male has a black sexual mark (Plate 125).
Except that the colour varies in the direction of a pale golden tint there is little in the way of aberration in this butterfly. At least one gynandrous specimen has been recorded.
The following descriptions of the early stages (Plate 124), as well as the figures of the caterpillar and the chrysalis, are from Buckler's "Larvæ of British Butterflies":—
The egg "is of a long oval figure, half as long again as wide, the shell glistening, devoid of ribs or reticulation; at first white, then turning dull yellowish, and at last paler again, with the dark head of the caterpillar showing through. The young caterpillar eats part of the empty egg-shell."
The full-grown caterpillar is of a delicate light green, the stripe along the back is rather bluish-green, with paler green central and side lines; the spiracles are flesh-coloured, and below these there is a somewhat creamy-white stripe. The head is deeper green than the body, and roughened with minute points. It feeds in June on Holcus lanatus, Brachypodium sylvaticum, and probably other kinds of soft grasses, and its assimilation, both in colour and texture, with the blades of grass is remarkable. Before changing to the chrysalis it encloses itself within two or sometimes three leaves of the grass, joined together longitudinally by lacing or spinning with white silk, the edges more or less close to each other, and becomes completely hidden.
The chrysalis is secured in the silken chamber, head upward, by an oblique cincture behind the thorax, and the anal tip fastened by a fan-like spread of fine hooks at the extremity fixed in the silk. The colour is similar to that of the caterpillar, and the lines are fairly in evidence. Caterpillars that spun up on June 18 to 23 produced butterflies on July 15 and 16.
Hellins states that eggs were laid in a row in a folded blade of grass about July 29, and that the caterpillars hatched out on August 12.
According to Hawes, the caterpillar of this species does not hatch from the egg until the following spring.
Although it does not seem to be very plentiful in fenlands, this butterfly certainly has a partiality for damp places, whether in the rides, or on the sides of woods, on hill slopes, or waste ground. Wherever there is a fairly large growth of the taller soft grasses that the caterpillars feed upon, there the butterfly may be found in July and August throughout the greater part of England and Wales. Reported from the Edinburgh district in Scotland; and in Ireland from Powerscourt and near Cork.
Small Skipper.
Caterpillar and chrysalis.
Essex Skipper.
Eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillar.
Pl. 124.
Lulworth Skipper.
Eggs enlarged; caterpillar and chrysalis.
Pl. 125.
Small Skipper. 1, 3 male; 2, 4 female.
Essex Skipper. 5, 7 male; 6, 8 female.
Lulworth Skipper. 9, 11 male; 10, 12 female.
This butterfly is very like the Small Skipper, but may be separated from it, in both sexes, by the black under sides of the knobs of the antennæ. The black sexual mark in the male is finer, shorter, and much less oblique (Plate 125).
The egg (Plate 124) is pale greenish-yellow, oval in shape, flattened above and below; the top is slightly depressed. The eggs are deposited in July or August, in dried grass seed-heads and inside the sheath of a leaf, and the caterpillars, according to Hawes, do not hatch until April.
The caterpillar is green, with the incisions between the rings yellowish; there is a darker green stripe on the back, and the lines on the sides are yellow. The head is pale brown and striped with darker brown. It feeds from April to June on coarse grasses, such as Triticum repens. When full grown "it spins together the stems of the grass low down, with a network of white silk for pupation" (Hawes). The chrysalis is described as being long, yellowish-green in colour, and retaining the dark dorsal stripe seen in the caterpillar.
No doubt this butterfly has been with us all the time, but it appears to have escaped detection until the year 1888, when Mr. Hawes, in July of that year, met with it in Essex. He, however, did not then consider the three specimens that he had taken with A. thaumas anything more than queer varieties of that species, and it was not until January, 1890, that the fact of A. lineola being British was published. Since that time this Skipper has been found in a great many parts of Essex, but chiefly along the coast, and in such localities as Benfleet, Canvey, Dovercourt, Shoeburyness, Southend, etc. At Hadleigh it is often very abundant. Other localities are Sheerness, Cliffe, and Gravesend, in Kent. It has also been reported from near Sudbury, and from Harwich, and Chappel in Suffolk; from Ashton Wold in Northamptonshire. In 1898 five specimens, identified by the Rev. Gilbert Raynor, were taken near Bedford. Barrett, who mentions Wicken Fen and Burwell among other localities, says that it has a "partiality for the embankments which protect the cultivated land from the inroad of the high tides which flood the salt marshes. Here it flits about, or sits on the coarse seaside grasses or on blossoms of thistle, or Lotus corniculatus, indicating rather sluggish habits, yet flying swiftly when disturbed. Further inland it seems to frequent chalky hillsides and marshes." It is on the wing in July and August.
The species is found in all parts of the Palæarctic Region except the most northern and the Canary Isles.
Compared with the other two species on Plate 125, the coloration of this butterfly is somewhat dingy; it is, however, enlivened, especially in the female, by a short dash and a curved series of orange spots in the upper half of the fore wings. The male has a black sexual mark which is very similar to that of the Small Skipper. There seems to be very little to note in variation, except that the orange markings referred to are subject to modification, and in the male may be altogether absent. An example taken at Swanage, in 1903, had the wings on the left side male, and those on the right side female.
The egg, figured, from a photograph, on Plate 124, is whitish, faintly tinged with yellowish.
The mature caterpillar is pale greyish, or yellowish, green, with the dorsal vessel darker, and edged with a slender pale yellow line on either side, and enclosing a pale longitudinal line along its middle. A narrow yellowish line runs above on the side and a broader one below. The two dorsal lines are prolonged as far as the middle of the head, and run to the end of the flat anal shield, which is narrowly edged with pale yellow. The head is greenish with two yellowish lines. The two snow-white patches on the under side of the ninth and tenth rings of the body are conspicuous as in lineola, sylvanus, and comma. This white substance is spread out at the tail end of the caterpillar of actæon, when it has formed its chrysalis case (Zeller).
Buckler, referring to four caterpillars found on Brachypodium sylvaticum, June 11, states that they completed their growth on a diet of Triticum repens. They ate out wedge-shaped portions from the sides of the grass blades, and when they had finished their repast, they crawled down to the middle of the blade, and there spun a coating of white silk from one side to the other, causing the two edges of the blade to draw together a little, and then in the silk-lined hollow they rested until hunger obliged them to ascend the blade again for another meal. About June 23 they had ceased to feed, and were beginning to fasten themselves within more closely constructed retreats, formed where two blades of grass obliquely crossed each other. The colour of the chrysalis is similar to that of the caterpillar, and the lines are faintly traceable. The butterflies appeared July 14 to 18, emerging at night, and ready for flight in the morning.
This insect received its English name in 1832, when it was first discovered in this country at Lulworth Cove, in Dorsetshire. It has since been found to occur at Durdle Cove, and the Burning Cliff, Weymouth, and the latter locality appears to be its most eastern limit. Its range extends westward along the coast of Dorsetshire and Devonshire to Sidmouth, Seaton, and Torquay; and there are records of its having been observed in Cornwall. According to Mr. E.R. Bankes, as quoted by Barrett, this butterfly is not confined to the coast line in Dorset, but is to be found in two or three spots along the chalk range of the Purbeck Hills, at a distance of four or five miles from the sea. He also states that the species is only single brooded, that the best time for it is from the beginning of July to the middle of August, and that the food-plant of the caterpillar is Brachypodium pinnatum.
The blossoms of rest-harrow (Ononis arvensis) are said to be the particular vanity of the butterfly, and it is seldom found visiting any other flower. Abroad the species is not especially attached to the sea-coast, but occurs inland throughout Central and Southern Europe, its range extending to Asia Minor and Syria, and also to North-West Africa.
The male has the discal area of the fore wings bright fulvous, and the outer area broadly brown; the sexual mark is black; the hind wings are tinged with fulvous on the disc, and have brighter fulvous spots. The female is brown with a fulvous discal wedge on the fore wings, and an angulate series of fulvous spots beyond; hind wings as in the male, but spots rather more defined. In some examples of this sex the spots on the fore wings are confluent, and the discal area is then fulvous as in the male (Plate 126).
The egg is whitish or greenish-white, and is laid on a blade of grass. Hellins states that from eggs laid about July 1 the caterpillars hatched on July 13; they chose cocks-foot grass (Dactylis glomerata) for food, and rested in the middle of a blade, fastening its edges across with five or six distinct little ropes of white silk.
The young caterpillar figured on Plate 127 was on September 11 about half an inch in length, and had been removed from the grass tube, also shown, to be figured; the head was then pale brown, bordered and lined with purplish brown; the body was darkish green, paler on the last ring, and with darker lines on the back and sides. After hibernation (the figure of this stage of the caterpillar is from Buckler), in May, the caterpillar is about one inch long, pale green in colour; the skin is thickly covered with very short dark brown bristles, "the head dirty white with a dark brown stripe down the outer edge of each lobe, the neck whitish-green" (Hellins).
The chrysalis was formed in the grass cocoon shown with it. The general colour was brown with the wing-cases darker, and a darker suffusion on the back.
The egg-laying of this butterfly has been observed by Mr. Ullyett, who states that the female, having selected a suitable grass-stem, deposits eggs in a line in a sheath formed by the leaf round the stem. The caterpillars hibernate in tubes of grass, and feed up in the spring.
This butterfly has been supposed to be double brooded, but there does not seem to be any direct evidence that this is so. It is on the wing in grassy places on the slopes of downs and other hillsides, also in rides, and on the margins of woods, from early June until well into July, and sometimes even later in the year. It is found in most of our English counties, and also in Scotland, south of the Forth. In Ireland it is not uncommon in a meadow in Lord Kenmare's demesne, Killarney, and has been recorded from the Morrough of Wicklow.
Abroad its distribution extends through Europe and Northern Asia to China and Japan, and also to North Africa.
This butterfly is very similar on the upper side to the Large Skipper, but the spots, especially those nearest the front edge of the fore wings, are yellower. On the under side the greenish tinge of the ground colour, and the silvery spots, make the identification quite easy. The black sex mark in the male is very similar to that of the last species (Plate 126).
The males vary a little in the width of the marginal border, and in some females there is almost as much fulvous on the discal area of the wings as in the male; in the darkest females the spots always appear paler than in fulvous specimens. On the under side the ground colour is sometimes olive-brown rather than green.
The following account of the life-history of this butterfly is adapted from Mr. Frohawk's article on the subject published in the Entomologist for 1901:—
In August, whilst watching some of the butterflies on the wing over a patch of chalky ground covered with a short dense growth of various grasses, etc., he noted a female hovering close over the plants. Presently it settled on a tuft of hair grass (Aira cæspitosa), and after walking over and among it a little time, she curved her abdomen down, and deposited a single egg on one of the fine hair-like blades, or, rather, spines, and close by, within an inch, another egg was found. Afterwards some plants of this grass were potted up, and some females placed on them. These deposited a large number of eggs upon the grass-stems and blades.
The egg when newly laid is pearl white with the slightest yellowish-green tinge, which very gradually turns deeper in colour, assuming a pale straw-yellow on the sixth day, and so it remains until January, when it becomes paler.
The caterpillar hatches out at the end of March or early in April. It does not eat the empty egg-shell, but directly after leaving the egg it starts spinning the fine grass together into a somewhat dense cluster an inch or two above the ground. In this compact shelter the larva lives and feeds upon the grass surrounding it, remaining almost always completely hidden. Sometimes as many as three or four live together. When full grown and about one hundred days old, the caterpillar is of a dull olive-green colour, with a black collar on the first ring, and the entire surface densely sprinkled with minute shining black warts, each emitting a tiny amber-coloured spine with a cleft knobbed apex. The head is blackish marked with ochreous lines. It still resides in a tube of grass spun closely together, and feeds on any other kind of grass that happens to be interwoven with the Aira. Just before pupation the caterpillar often crawls restlessly about, but in some instances it does not leave its place of feeding, and spins a strong, coarse network cocoon among the grass close to the ground, weaving the gnawed loose pieces of grass with the fine stems and blades, and therein pupates during the latter part of July.
Pl. 126.
Large Skipper. 1, 3, male; 2, 4 female.
Silver-Spotted Skipper. 5, 7 male; 6, 8 female.
Chequered Skipper. 9, 10 male; 11 female.
Large Skipper.
Egg, natural size and enlarged; caterpillars, chrysalis and cocoon.
Silver-spotted Skipper.
Egg, natural size and enlarged; caterpillar.
Pl. 127.
Chequered Skipper.
Egg enlarged and caterpillar.
The chrysalis is secured in the cocoon by hooks at the tail and by hooked bristles on the head; the head and thorax are pale olive mottled with blackish; the body olive, spotted with dark olive, and inclining to yellow on the ventral surface; below each spiracle is a short longitudinal mark; the spiracles are amber-brown.
The butterfly is to be found in August on most of our chalk hills, but has not been recorded from either Scotland or Ireland.
It is a very quick flyer and difficult to capture when on the wing, but it is fond of sitting on low-growing thistles, and is then sometimes easy to take. Abroad it occurs throughout Europe and Northern Asia to China and Japan.
The Chequered Skipper (Carterocephalus palæmon).
The well-defined yellow or orange spots on the blackish-brown ground colour distinguish this butterfly from all other British Skippers.
The variation is only of a minor kind, and chiefly in the direction of an increase or a decrease in the number and the size of the spots. Occasionally those on the central area of the fore wings are much enlarged and more or less confluent; and the spots on the outer margin of the hind wings are sometimes very small or entirely absent.
The following particulars of the early stages are abstracted from Mr. Frohawk's life-history of the species (Entomologist, 1892):—
Living females received in June were placed on a growing plant of brome grass (Bromus asper), and a few eggs were deposited, some upon the blades of grass, others upon the gauze-covered glass jar in which the plant was placed; they were laid singly, firmly adhering to whatever laid upon. The first lot of eggs were deposited on June 14. The egg has a pearly appearance, being whitish or yellowish-white in colour. Ten days after the egg is deposited the young caterpillar emerges by eating away the crown. Soon after hatching out the young caterpillar makes a little tubular dwelling, drawing together the edges of the grass-blade by spinning about three or four stout cords of silk, which quickly contract, causing the edges to draw together, and sometimes to overlap, forming a compact short tube; generally before spinning it nibbles off the extreme edge of the blade where the silk is afterwards attached. It feeds upon the blade both above and below its abode, devouring so much that frequently only the midrib of the blade remains, and the tube only just long enough to conceal it; it then shifts its quarters, and prepares a new home.
On October 3, when one hundred and one days old, the caterpillar was pale primrose-yellow, and the stripes of a slightly darker hue, the white lateral line showing clearly, and spiracles brownish; the head pale buff with a faint lilac tinge, with a black patch above the mouth and brownish at the sides. In the previous stage the caterpillar was whitish-green with a rather dark green line along the middle of the back, this line bordered on each side by an almost white, very fine line, followed by alternate darker and lighter lines, the lightest being extremely fine; "then a subdorsal darker green line, bordered laterally by a conspicuous whitish line, which is again bordered below by a paler and indistinct green line, and a very faint spiracular whitish stripe, on which the spiracles are placed; they are white, outlined by a dark but indistinct ring; the under surface is whitish-green."
About the middle of October the hibernaculum was formed by spinning two blades of grass together at the edges, so making a tube, in which the caterpillar remained during the winter. On March 21 it left its retreat, but did not seem to feed, and generally remained quiet, lying along a grass-blade. On April 3 "it had drawn together with silk six blades of grass at the ends, forming a tent-like structure, and along the surface of one of the broadest a little carpet of silk was spun, upon which it rested with its head uppermost; a silk cord also encircled its body round the fourth segment." It assumed the chrysalis state on April 8, and had then passed two hundred and eighty-nine days in the caterpillar condition. The chrysalis measures five-eighths of an inch in length, is fairly cylindrical, but tapering to the tail. "Dorsal view: the head is pointed in front in the form of a short conical beak; the eyes are rather prominent; the thorax is swollen in the middle, the widest part, and then gradually tapers towards the last segment, which is elongated and flattened. Lateral view: the beak is slightly upturned, the thorax convexed, and the segment next to the thorax is rather swollen in the middle, so forming a rather decided depression at the base of the thorax, where the silken cord passes round; the body gradually tapering to the last segment, which terminates in a long compressed curved process furnished with long hooks; the wing-cases extend down two-thirds its length, and only very little, if at all, swollen; the antennæ and legs are but feebly modelled; the tongue is well defined, it is dusky at the base, blending into black at the apex; the colour is of a very pale primrose-yellow, shading into pearly grey, and semi-transparent on the head, wings, and flap; a dark medio-dorsal line commences at the base of the beak, and passes down the entire length, gradually fading off in the anal extremity; it is blackest on the head and first abdominal segment, and palest on the thorax, where it is light brown; there are two rust-red subdorsal lines, which run parallel from the base of the antennæ to the last segment; another similar line, united along the inner margin of the wing, passes over two spiracles, and then runs parallel with the subdorsal lines.... The antennæ and wings are faintly outlined with dusky brown. In general appearance and colouring the pupa closely resembles a piece of dead withered grass."
A female butterfly emerged on May 20, the transformation from egg to perfect insect thus occupying about eleven months. This local butterfly is on the wing in June; sometimes it is seen in the latter part of May, and, more rarely perhaps, in July.
This species appears to have been first noticed as an inhabitant of Britain in 1798, in which year specimens were taken in Clapham Park Wood, Bedfordshire, by Dr. Abbott, who, four years later, also reported the butterfly from White Wood, Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire. In 1823 it was found to occur at Castor Hanglands, near Peterborough; and in 1841 Doubleday met with it, in large numbers, in Monk's Wood, Huntingdonshire. Among other localities from which it has been reported are Ropsley Wood, near Grantham, Notts, and Wychwood Forest, Oxfordshire.
In its special localities, which, at the present time, are chiefly the larger woods in Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, and Buckinghamshire, it frequents the flowers of ground ivy (Nepeta glechoma) and of the bugle (Ajuga reptans).
Abroad it is locally common in various parts of Central Europe; also occurs in Finland, Central and Northern Russia, Dalmatia, Piedmont, and in Labrador, and other parts of North America.
* Species so marked in this Index are reputed British.