oe xe a7 é THE LE P Tl BOLE fA OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS 5x5 G1 BS VY. \ Ent. THE EPI WOPTERA OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS A DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF, THE FAMILIES, GENERA, AND SPECIES INDIGENOUS TO GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, THEIR PREPARATORY STATES, HABITS, AND LOCALITIES. BY CHARLES G. BARRETT, F.ES. ONE OF THE EDITORS OF THE *f ENTOMOLOGIST’S MONTHLY MAGAZINE” VOL. J RHOPALOCERA 9 ’ é “LONDON: Ly REEVE, GAN DD) (GO: Publishers to the Home, Colonial and Invian Governments “6 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. 1893 “se ial ZAntHsON ig» | APR 9~ 1952 PREFACE. In the present state of our knowledge of the British Lepi- doptera it seems evident that such a work as I have under- taken is not to be lightly dealt with. Observers in these Tslands are so numerous, so widely scattered, so closely at- tentive to the habits of insects and of their larva, and so enterprising in searching out their most secret haunts, that a history, to be satisfactory, must contain a good deal more than mere descriptions and localities; must, indeed, as it seems to me, furnish details far beyond what are often con- sidered to be adequate in a descriptive work. My aim is, therefore, not only to furnish original and accurate descrip- tions of the perfect insects, and the most reliable descrip- tions obtainable of their larvae and pup, but also such particulars of their habits and ways, drawn from personal ex- perience and the most reliable records, as shall present them to the reader as creatures which enjoy their lives, and fill their allotted positions, before they take a more permanent place in the museum or the cabinet. With this view I have ransacked such periodicals as The Zoologist, The Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine, The Entomologist, The Naturalist, The Young Naturalist, and others, for the records of personal observations as they have appeared from month to month vi PREFACE. fresh from the mind of the observer; while frequent use has been made of works such as Stainton’s Manual of British Butterflies and Moths, Lang’s Butterflies of Europe, Newman’s Illustrated Natural History of British Butterflies and Moths, Buckler’s Larve: of British Butterflies and Moths edited by Stainton and published by the Ray Society, Kirby’s Zuropean Butterflies and Moths, Berge’s Schmetterlingsbuch, Dale’s British Butterflies, and others, not neglecting the older authors—Haworth, Stephens, Curtis, and Westwood. For localities the most recent available information has been made use of, in some degree to the exclusion of that in the older works, since, from the increase of cities and towns, and of a smoky condition of the air resulting therefrom, and from extension of native industries, as well as from effects of culti- vation, species have, in numerous instances, been driven away from their old and known localities, while the natural instincts of diffusion and migration have to some extent been effective in the opposite direction. Therefore, it has been found necessary to rely largely upon personal observation, private communications, and the more carefully drawn up local lists, such as those compiled by the Rev. E. N. Bloom- field for Suffolk and for the Hastings districts, by Lieutenant Walker and Mr. W. Chaney for Hast Kent, Mr. E. A. Fitch for Essex, Mr. J. H. A. Jenner for Hast Sussex, Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher for West Sussex, Mr. HE. R. Bankes for the Isle of Purbeck, Dorsetshire, Mr. A. E. Hudd for the Bristol district, Mr. J. Hartley Durrant for Hertfordshire, Mr. G. Balding for the Fenland ; that for Norfollx published by the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ Society, with additions by Lord Wal- singham, Dr. F. D. Wheeler, Rey. C. T. Cruttwell and Mr. EK. A. Atmore; that for the district round Burton-on-Trent PREFACE. vii by Dr. Mason and friends; for Herefordshire by Mr. Thomas Hutchinson, for Lancashire and Cheshire by Dr. J. W. Ellis, and for Yorkshire by Mr. G. T. Porritt. For the whole of Scotland Dr. F. Buchanan White has contributed the results of the research of many years. and additional information has been furnished by Dr. Carlier and Messrs, Arthur Horne, Adam Elliott, and W. Reid, with a long list of Perth- shire species by the late Sir Thomas Moncrieffe. For Ireland it has been necessary to rely largely upon the catalogue drawn up in 1867 by the late Mr. Edwin Birchall, with additions and corrections by Mr. W. F. de V. Kane, the Rey. J. Bristowe, Rey. W. F. Johnson, Rev. W. W. Flemyng, Mr. G. V. Hart and others, Lastly, I have received very much assistance in personal information, MS. descriptions of larve, use of books and of rare species and interesting varieties, and indeed every possible help, from Mr. Sydney Webb, Dr. P. B. Mason, Mr. Charles Fenn, Mr. C. A. Briggs, Mr. Herbert Goss, Mr. 8. J. Capper, Rey. Joseph Greene, Major Still, Mr. S. Stevens, Mr. F. J. Hanbury, Mr. E. Sabine, and many others; all this help being received with the warmest acknowledgments, and valued as a means of making the work more complete and more widely useful. From the great amount of attention which has recently been given to the variations and aberrations observable in different species, it has now become possible to furnish much information as to the mutations in colour and in markings to which each species is liable, either locally, casually, or in consequence of a natural instability in the species in these respects. Somewhat detailed descriptions of the typical forms, at greater length than is commonly deemed necessary, are viii PREFACE. therefore given, and are followed by indications of the directions which variation is known, in each species, to take. In order to meet the difficulty often found in readily dis- criminating a species by means of a long description, a short diagnosis (which it has not seemed necessary to render into Latin) is given in every case; and, where desirable, Mr. Stainton’s admirable method of tabulation has, in addition, been used. 39 LINDEN GROVE, NUNHEAD, Lonpon, 8.E. March 1893. hE PrVOr wa rr A. INTRODUCTION. In undertaking to furnish a history, so far as possible, of all the British Lepidoptera, a long introduction is perhaps super- fluous, but some preliminary observations are absolutely neces- sary to enable the young student to clearly comprehend the descriptions. Lepidoptera (singular Lepidopteron—lepis = scale, pteron = wing) are those insects which are clothed with scales, as distinguished from those which have hairy wings, or are devoid of covering; and although some few moths will be found to have the wings bare of scales, and others occur in which the females have no wings at all, the scales will still be found on heads, bodies, legs, and even on the margins of the wings, when present. Insects of this order are never provided with jaws nor with stings, and indeed have in the perfect state no effective means of defence. They take food—which consists of the honey of flowers or other sweet fluids—by means of a flexible proboscis or trunk, which is really a long, hollow double tongue. This tongue exists in the vast majority of species, and in some, as the Sphingina, is of great length, to enable them to extract honey from the deepest tubular flowers; while in others, notably many of the Bombyses, it is exceedingly short or completely atrophied, and these—many of them most active and power- A viii PREFACE. therefore given, and are followed by indications of the directions which variation is known, in each species, to take. In order to meet the difficulty often found in readily dis- criminating a species by means of a long description, a short diagnosis (which it has not seemed necessary to render into Latin) is given in every case; and, where desirable, Mr. Stainton’s admirable method of tabulation has, in addition, been used. 39 LINDEN GROVE, NUNHEAD, LonpDoN, 8.E. March 1893. ERP LDOR wh A. INTRODUCTION. Ty undertaking to furnish a history, so far as possible, of all the British Lepidoptera, a long introduction is perhaps super- fluous, but some preliminary observations are absolutely neces- sary to enable the young student to clearly comprehend the descriptions. Lepidoptera (singular Lepidopteron—lepis= scale, pteron = wing) are those insects which are clothed with scales, as distinguished from those which have hairy wings, or are devoid of covering; and although some few moths will be found to have the wings bare of scales, and others occur in which the females have no wings at all, the scales will still be found on heads, bodies, legs, and even on the margins of the wings, when present. Insects of this order are never provided with jaws nor with stings, and indeed have in the perfect state no effective means of defence. They take food—which consists of the honey of flowers or other sweet fluids—by means of a flexible proboscis or trunk, which is really a long, hollow double tongue. This tongue exists in the vast majority of species, and in some, as the Sphingina, is of great length, to enable them to extract honey from the deepest tubular flowers; while in others, notably many of the Bombyses, it is exceedingly short or completely atrophied, and these—many of them most active and power- A 2 LEPIDOPTERA. ful insects—take no food of any description while in the perfect state. Those species in which the tongue is present are also provided with a pair of organs called palpi, attached to the labium or lower lip, which project from the front of the head in such a manner as to conceal and protect the tongue when it is coiled up and out of use. These palpi are three-jointed, but extremely varied in form and proportions; consequently they are useful to the student for purposes of classification. Above and outside these are two large eyes, each consisting of a number of divisions or facets, and so placed as to command a wide range of vision. Two small elevations behind them are called ocelli, and are thought to be simple eyes, but they seem unnecessary for such a purpose, and their use is not clearly understood. Slightly above, and nearer together than the large eyes, are placed two horns, feelers, or antennze, more or less flexible, and divided into numerous joints. As a general rule they are not used as feelers, except that probably by their perception of the atmosphere the direction of flight is affected, and, unless for this purpose, the insect appears to make little use of them. But to the student they are invaluable, since by their structure he determines at once whether the insect before him is a butterfly or a moth. Their structure varies in an extraordinary manner, especially in the male sex, but is constant in each species. The head, which is covered with hair-like scales, is united by a slender neck to the thorax, the strong muscular portion of the body in which are situated the muscles required for locomotion, and to which are attached the four wings and the six legs. The thorax is generally more or less oval, rounded above or sometimes flattened, and by its breadth and strength is determined the degree of swiftness and power of wing of the species. The abdomen is articulated to it by a small waist, which in butterflies usually becomes thicker somewhat gradually, but INTRODUCTION. 3 in moths is concealed by the immediate thickening of the body, which appears to join solidly to the thorax. The abdomen contains the digestive and generative organs and a large portion of the complicated breathing apparatus, the remainder cf which is in the thorax. The wings are attached firmly to each side of the thorax, and consist of a thin double membrane, usually covered on both sides with scales and strengthened by what are generally called nervures or veins, though tendons would be equally appropriate. They cannot be true veins, as they terminate at the ends of the wings, and the name nervures seems most satisfactory, since they certainly carry sensation as well as strengthen the wings. The front of the wing is usually called the costal (or ribbed) margin ; it is the thickest portion, and strengthened by the most powerful nervure, which is often partially doubled. This is known as the swb-costal nervure. From close to its origin in the base of the wing a second nervure proceeds through the middle of the wing, whence it and the sub-costal nervure throw off branches which extend to the margin. Sometimes also these two nervures are united by a cross-bar, which doubtless gives additional strength. The space enclosed is known as the discal cell, and those between the branches of the neryures are also called cells. A third main nervure starts from the base and passes along near to the inner or dorsal margin of the wing—the margin nearest to the back of the insect. It seems to prevent the wing from tearing, and does not throw off branches. The branches from the other two nervures stretch and hold the wing in its proper extended shape, and terminate at fairly equal distances along the hind margin— the portion of the wing farthest from the thorax—or else along the outer half of the front or costal margin. The modifications of these three nervures and their branches are largely made use of in classification. Their general pattern or plan, however, is mainly the same, and the modifications comparatively slight, except that in the extremely narrow- 4 LEPIDOPTERA. winged groups—especially some of the Tineina—the nervures are fewer in number and nearly parallel. The neuration of the hind wings is similar to that of the fore wings, with alterations of position to suit their function, which appears to be that of a floating or buoyant support, while that of the stronger fore wings is progressive. In the vast majority of species the fore wings slightly overlap the hind, and in the case of those which fold the hind wings together, the latter usually possess near their base a short stiff bristle, or two bristles, which, fitting into a groove in the fore wings, keep both together and in position. This bristle is present in nearly all moths, and absent in all our butterflies, The colouring and marking of the wings are due entirely to the scales with which they, as well as the body and legs, are covered, and which are so well known as the dust which adheres to the fingers when a moth or butterfly is handled. The colours and markings are arranged in definite patterns, and it is by these and the shapes of the wings that species in this group are mainly recognisable. In many species, however, these colours and markings are subject to con- siderable modification, and the extent to which a pattern may in both respects vary without losing its specific character is a most curious and interesting subject of study. The legs, six in number, consist, as in the higher animals, of three main portions—the femur (thigh), tibia (shank), and tarsus (foot), and the latter is divided, not into toes, though it has a pair of claws at the extremity, but into five movable joints. In many cases the upper and undivided portions of the leg are furnished with spines or spurs. All Lepidopterous insects pass through a series of changes, which is known as a “complete” metamorphosis. At certain periods of its existence each creature suffers a total alteration in appearance, once into a helpless and comparatively shape- less state without external organs, and from this directly into the state in which all the organs are perfect. This complete metamorphosis is accomplished, as is also INTRODUCTION. 5 each stage of growth, by the simple process of casting or throwing off a skin. The old skin screens and protects each development until it is complete, and is then flung aside as of no further value. The first stage is that of the egg or ovum (plural, ova), which is Jaid in some suitable place by the parent perfect insect, and out of which, after a period varying from a few days to a few months, creeps the minute caterpillar or larva. This promptly begins to feed, sometimes making its first meal on the horny shell of the egg. As it increases in size, its skin becomes too small and is thrown off. This happens in most species three or four times at least, and in some con- siderably more ; but it does not appear that there is a fixed rule in this respect even in the same species. When, how- ever, the larva has fed with increasing voracity until it has attained the full growth applicable to its kind—which may be in twenty-one days or even less, and may be any other length of time up to three or even four years according to its species, and to the time of year—its appetite fails, and it begins to make preparations for a more important metamor- phosis. These preparations are extremely various: some larvee hang themselves up by the tail, others by that and a silken girth; others spin around themselves a cocoon or chamber of silk; others, again, make a chamber of silk and earth, or of earth only ; while many bore into soft wood or bark, or draw together portions of leaves, or creep under moss, or spin up the entrance of the case in which they have lived. All place themselves in some situation which seems to afford protection and safety, and there, after a rest and gradual change—in most species of a very few days, but in some of weeks or even months—another skin is thrown off, and a helpless creature is disclosed, having neither means of feeding nor of locomotion, nor indeed of any motion, except of the rings or segment of the abdomen by which the old skin is shaken or thrust off. This helpless body is called the chrysalis or pupa. Tn this condition it remains for a few days 6 LEPIDOPTERA. at least, but in many species for weeks or months, and eyen in some instances for years, with this peculiarity, that however long it may so remain after the first year, it will only produce the perfect insect at that season in which it would have made its appearance if perfected in the first year. This emergence, whenever it takes place, is the last of the series of changes of skin, and the comparatively inert and shapeless object breaks open at certain defined lines or sutures, and so allows the perfect insect (¢mago) to escape. The creature is now perfect so far as the organs of the head and the legs are concerned, but the body is somewhat distended with fluid, and the wings are totally useless and imperfect, being mere soft flaps of very small size close to its sides, but’ having the shape, markings, and generally the colour of the developed wings. When the colour is different it arises from the fact that the tips of the scales—the only portions then visible—are of a different colour from their surfaces. Thus, in Zhecla rubi the un- developed wings are of a golden-brown beneath, although they become green as they expand. This expansion in most species takes place in a few minutes, or at any rate in less than an hour after emergence, and is caused by the fluid in the body being forced into the nervures and between the membranes of the wings, and, if the insect be undisturbed, full extension is soon reached. Then, after the wings have hung loosely for a short time to gather strength, they are usually raised from the sides and placed perpendicularly (as regards the insect) from the back, still, however, being kept as far as possible pendant, until comparatively dry and firm, when they are brought to their ordinary position and are soon ready for use.» Occasionally, and for no apparent reason, a moth will defer the expansion of its wings for hours or even until the next day. Species vary as much in the duration of their perfect state as in the earlier stages, except that life in the perfect con- dition is never known to exceed a year. Probably this length of existence is very nearly reached by some of those species INTRODUCTION. if which, emerging in the middle of summer, retire early into some hiding-place in which they remain through the winter, coming out in the spring to fly about, to pair, and deposit eggs. These specimens, when the spring is late, may be found on the wing far into the summer. But in the vast majority of cases the business of reproducing the species is attended to within a few days, or, at furthest, weeks, of emergence, and then the insects become worn in appearance and speedily die. None are more prompt to attend to this important duty than . those species which are devoid of means of taking subsistence. Though all species of Lepidoptera pass through the series of changes just mentioned, there are a few which do not seem to reach the same perfect condition as the rest. This occurs mainly in the female sex, the individuals of which, in some species, have no effective wings, or even no wings at all, and in a few species no legs nor antennz, so that the unfor- tunates must remain in the cases in which they previously lived and assumed the pupa state, and there lay their eggs and die. In this last instance the females usually possess the power of laying fertile eges without the intervention of the male, and in one species at least this extraordinary method of reproduction (which is called Parthenogenesis) is so complete that, although the female is plentiful, the male is totally unknown. In those species which have wingless (apterous) females, not living in cases, but well provided with legs, this power does not seem to be present; yet it appears capriciously and most inexplicably now and then in winged species. It would be easy to write a volume upon the variations to which perfect insects, and even their larve and pupe, are liable, the conditions under which these variations occur, the habits of the creatures, and their natural history in all stages ; but these are subjects too large to enter upon here, and it is the hope and desire of the writer to furnish some such infor- mation in connection with each species separately. The subjects of collecting in the perfect state, as well as in the 8 LEPIDOPTERA. egg, larva, and pupa stages, with the best methods of breed- ing, rearing, killing, setting, and preserving, would also demand much space; but they are dealt with more fully than would be possible in a work of this nature by Dr. Knaggs in the “ Lepidopterists’ Guide,” the Rev. J. Greene in “ Pupa Digging.” the Rev. J. S. St. John in “ Larva Collecting and Breeding ”—all comparatively inexpensive works—as well as in the various magazines devoted to Entomology; so that no . one need remain long without the fullest and most reliable information. But a few general remarks on larvee may be useful. They have in all cases thirteen divisions or segments, of which the first is the head and the next three the thoracic segments, to which belong the three pairs of true legs. Attached to the seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and thirteenth segments there are usually pairs of what are generally known as pro-legs or claspers—thicker muscular processes, having circlets of hooks —which act as legs, and have considerable clinging power. Those on the thirteenth segment are placed more backward than the rest, sometimes much extended. In some internal- feeding species they are differently placed, with hooklets outwards, so as to facilitate the passing of the larva through its burrow. In one large group the pro-legs of the seventh to the ninth segments are absent, and in others those on the seventh or seventh and eighth ; while in a few the anal pair is atrophied, its place being taken by a curious pair of ten- tacles haying different functions. Those externally-feeding larvee which possess the full number of legs and pro-legs (sixteen) usually move by a continuous and following action of the whole series, thereby effecting a slightly undulating but fairly level movement; but in those which are devoid of three pairs of pro-legs the motion is quite different. The legs take a firm hold, and the hinder portion, with its four pro-legs, is brought close up, and grasps the space imme- diately behind, then the legs are released, and the larva reaches out to its full length for the next step. The action INTRODUCTION. 9 being repeated, it progresses by a series of loops and long strides; hence, those having this structure are called Geometre (earth-measurers). Those in which fewer pro-legs are absent adopt a modification of both modes of progression, and are commonly called half-loopers. Most larvae have hairs upon their bodies, arising from small raised, hardened disks. Each has sometimes a single delicate bristle or bunch of bristles; in other cases a spine, simple or branched ; but in many species the covering is much more dense, either short soft down, or hair, short or intermixed with longer, or in part forming thick tufts. The spots or hardened disks are, in many internal-feeding species, and in those which hide themselves underground, of a shining brown or black, and arranged in a definite pattern on each segment. There is also a plate of a horny or chitinous sub- stance protecting the back of the second segment, and another smaller, upon the thirteenth, above the anal opening. Along both sides above the legs and pro-legs is a complete row of minute orifices called the spiracles, through which the air is conveyed to a wonderful series of vessels called trachee, which fulfil the function of lungs. Vast numbers of larvee are ornamented with longitudinal lines or stripes, one on the back (dorsal line), one on each side along the spiracles (spivacular line), and another inter- mediate (the swb-dorsal line), or some of these, or additional, and the markings of the larva are usually as reliable and characteristic as those of the perfect insect. Some have, besides, tubercles or processes on various parts of the body, all equally to be depended on for specific identification. In treating of species it becomes necessary to adopt some systematic arrangement, and generally species may be readily grouped by structural peculiarities. The characters furnished by the imago state appear to give the most satisfactory re- sults, though these are in some cases supplemented or even modified by those found in the larva, and it appears certain that those characters of the imago in which both sexes agree 10 LEPIDOPTERA. are more reliable than those which pertain especially to the more ornamental male. Classification is, however, largely a matter of opinion. The absolute necessity—in books, lists, and collections—for a linear arrangement precludes the possi- bility of one which is really natural, since, although the relations of groups to each other are often evident, they ramify, extend, intersect, and interlace to such a degree that it is only possible to take group after group in as natural a suc- cession as seems to commend itself to the individual writer, with the knowledge on his part that the arrangement is partly the outcome of his own particular views, and that in all probability those of other authors are equally substantial. That which has hitherto been followed for our native species does not appear to be disturbed to a very large extent by an examination of the species found in other parts of the world. One grand dividing line, separating the whole order into two parts, is found in the structure of the antennz. These in one group have a club-shaped, spoon-shaped, or otherwise blunt termination, whence the group is named Rhopalocera (club-horned); in the other they are pointed, but otherwise extremely various in form, whence the second group is called Heterocera (variously-horned). This structural division corre- sponds so closely with the appearance and habits of the two eroups that the species contained in the former are commonly known as butterflies, those of the latter as moths. Other characters—the structure of the waist, or connection of the abdomen with the thorax, the absence or presence of wing bristles, and the modes of carrying the wings, strenethen this broad line of demarcation. Both groups break up naturally into subordinate divisions, which, however, must be dealt with as they are reached. Synonymy, or the subject of names—and particularly the question which name, where the species has been described or figured under more than one—is a subject of great difficulty. hose given by Linne—who established the system of nomen- clature now in use—and his immediate disciples and followers INTRODUCTION. Il have hitherto been in general use for many of the widely distributed and familiar species; many others have borne the names given them by well-known German, French, and English authors. But the late Herr Lederer unearthed from old magazines descriptions which he considered applicable to many of these species, and, on account of their earlier date, substituted the names attached to these descriptions for those in common use. These changes being adopted by Dr. Staudinger, the great purveyor of European Lepidoptera, and published in his synonymic list, haye come to be widely known and to some extent used, both here and abroad, though not without heartburning and bitter protest. . But it seems doubt- ful whether these changes were in all cases warranted— whether, in fact, the descriptions really represent the species to which they have been applied; and as time will by no means allow of an examination of all competing claims, it is intended in the present work to quote every name under which any species is widely known. ‘The reader then can use that which he prefers. : The following abbreviations will be found for Badv. Bjer. Bkh. Brie Clk.. Curt. Dbid. . Dgl. Don. Dup. Esp. Fab. F, R. Forst. . Frol. Germ, . Gu. . NANLES J— . Boisduval. . Bjerkander. . Borkhausen. . Bruand. . Clerk. . Curtis. . H. Doubleday. . Douglas. . Donovan. . Duponchel. . Esper. . Fabricius. . Fischer von Rosler- stamm. . Forster. . Frolich. . Germar. . Guenée. . Hubner. . Heinemann. . Herrich Schaffer. Authors’ Haw. . Haworth. IE 6 . Illiger. bho A . Linne. Lasp. . Laspeyres. Latr. . Latreille. Nolck.. . Baron von Nolcken. Ochs. . Ochsenheimer. Rtz. . Ratzeburg. Scop. . . Seopoli. Schiff. . . Schiffermiiller. Staud. cat. Staudinger’s “ cata- logue.” Steph. . . Stephens. Stn. . Stainton. Swam.. . Swammerdamm. Tengs.. . Tengstrom. Tisch. . . Tischer. sees . Treitschke. Wilk. . Wilkinson. Vb ic . Zeller. Zett. . Zetterstedt. DI sd gl DJ el eg Division L—RHOPALOCERA. Having antenne: terminated by a club. Family 1. PAPILIONIDZ. Imago, having long antenne with large curved clubs. Anterior pair of legs fully developed. Dorsal margins of fore and hind wings concave. Larva smooth, cylindrical, with a retractile tentacle in the second segment. Legs, 16. Pupa upright, attached by the tail and a silken girth. Genus 1. PAPILIO, Z. Antenne long, moderately stout. Fore wings with apex elongated, and with arched costal margin ; hind wings escal- loped or indented, and usually furnished with a long tail. 1. P. machaon, Z.—Expanse of wings, 2} to 3} inches ; yellowish, with dark streaks and bands, and a long tail to the hind wings. Colour pale primrose, with black nervures. Fore wings having the base and hind margin broadly black dusted with yellow, the latter enclosing a row of eight primrose lunules ; three black quadrate spots lie near the costal margin. Hind wings have the dorsal margin blackish, a brick red spot at the anal angle, and a very broad blue-black band before the hind margin, which encloses six lunate primrose spots. Another row of lunate primrose spots lies along the hind margin, which 14 LEPIDOPTERA. is further ornamented with a long black tail, edged with yellow on one side. There are two yellowish stripes on the black thorax. Under side of the wings with markings as in the upper, but densely suffused with primrose scales, and having dashes of brick-red colour above the dark band of the hind wings. Variation is mainly in the width of the submarginal dark bands on the fore and hind wings, in the depth of colour in the nervures, in the presence or absence of a black spot in the second pale space from the apex of the fore wings, and in the degree of red suffusion on the pale lunules of the hind wings. Kentish-captured specimens are of a deeper yellow than those of the Fens, larger in size and with narrower subterminal bands. Some of those from Wicken Fen have these bands extremely broad. Mr. Sydney Webb has a specimen with fore wines broad and somewhat falcate, and in the collection of the late Mr. H. Doubleday, at Bethnal Green Museum, is one in which the dark short streak on the nervure which closes the discal cell of the hind wings is double. May to August; partially double-brooded. Larva stout, rounded, slightly tapering to each end. Head smaller than the second segment, which is squared in front, and furnished with an orange-coloured fleshy retractile tentacle in the form of the letter V, the forks being blunt at the top, but capable of great elongation to a fine point. Colour pale emerald green, incisions black, a broad transverse laterally interrupted black band on each segment. These, from the third to the twelfth segment, each contain six bright oranze spots. Head having four black lines and three black spots, anal segment two black spots, each lee and pro-leg one, and a row below the black spiracles. There is also a central row on the pale ventral surface. (Fenn MS.) Foon.—Peucedanum palustre and oceasionally Angelica syl- vestvis and other Umbelliferw in the Fens. When it occurs elsewhere its food is more various and includes the common PAPILIONIDE. 15 carrot (Daves carota) and fennel (Fwniculum vulgare), on which it also feeds well in confinement. Pupa stout, with blunt projections in front and on the thorax, varying in colour from green to drab, usually fastened to a stem of, or near, its food plant. June, July, and August ; sometimes remaining over to another year or even longer. The Larva feeds in bright sunshine. Usually its singular thoracic tentacle is invisible, but slight pressure at each side will cause it to be protruded, when immediately a strong scent like that of pine-apple is given off. Probably it is also extruded upon sudden alarm, since the Fenmen always assert that they know by the scent when a large specimen of the larva has fallen among the mown herbage, and that this assists them to find it. Mr. Farren states that the imago often smells strongly of the umbelliferous food of the larva. This grand insect—our only existing species of a genus of magnificent butterflies found almost all over the world —is still common in the undrained fens of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, and as the latter fens are extremely profitable to their owners, and the former are practically undrainable from their character as narrow strips edging the rivers, there is little probability of its extermination. It is said also to have had once a small station in Sussex, near Pulborough, and certainly it at one time inhabited marshy spots in the Thames valley, since the larva was taken year after year in osier beds in Battersea Fields, though the perfect insect does not seem to have been noticed there. Formerly, before those fens were drained, it was abundant at Whittlesea Mere, Yaxley, and Burwell, and doubtless, at a still earlier period, all over the fens of the Bedford level, as well as in Essex and Suffolk. It has been taken casually in the New Forest, in Somerset, and elsewhere, but not asa settled inhabitant. Larvze even have been found in Kent, but only casually, Although so striking an insect, its appearance on the wing is somewhat disappointing, as it has the flapping habit of its 16 LEPIDOPTERA. tribe, and not the graceful gliding motion of the more power- fully built groups, and when fluttering about flowers of Pedicularis palustris or other fen plants, is really somewhat inconspicuous, though when flying from fen to fen across a river, or dashing at full speed along the bank of a drain, it is a beautiful object. Abroad it is by no means confined to fens, but is a common garden insect, and its range is over most of the temperate regions of the world. [P. Podalirius,* Z.—Sinon, Staud. cat.—A beautiful creamy-yellow species, with long transverse blackish stripes, and very long hind wings and tail ; has been taken very rarely in this country, but probably only as an accidental immigrant. The Rev. F. W. Hope records that he has a specimen which he took at Netley, and also that he had two larva feeding on wild plum, but it does not appear whether they were reared. Two or three other records exist, and it is just possible that it is one of the species which have here died out; but this is now a mere matter of conjecture. | [Parnassius Apollo,* Z.—A large handsome species, with semi-transparent white fore wings, greyer behind, and having several large black spots ; hind wings with white- centred red spots, ringed with black, and a faint grey band. Mr. E. Sabine states in the Hntomologist for 1889 that one of his sons saw a specimen fly across his path and go slowly over the cliff at Dover in such a manner that the red spots and other peculiar markings were clearly observable. An old record also states that this species was seen in the West of Scotland about 1854. ] [Parnassius delius,* Hsp.—Rather smaller than P. Apollo with similar markings and smaller red spots, but no greyish band to the hind wings. * These and other species belonging to the European Fauna, but doubtfully British, will be found figured and described in Dr. Lang’s “ Butterflies of Europe,” 2 vols. (L. Reeve & Co.) ' PIERIDAE. 17 In the Lntomologists’ Monthly Magazine for 1887, Mr. E. Meyrick recorded a specimen taken on September | of that year in the mountains above Penrhyn slate quarries, about seven miles from Bangor. Although the sun was shining the butterfly was sluggish and was easily caught. It was unknown to the captor, a boy at Marlborough College, and was named for him on his return to school. These two species of Parnassius are well-known inhabitants of the Alps and Pyrenees, genuine mountain insects, extremely local and sluggish, and by no means likely to migrate. Supposing there to be no cause for suspicion in the cases of these two very circumstantial records, it can only be supposed that the insects had been accidentally conveyed in the larva or pupa state from their Continental homes among plants, which, as is well known, are constantly forwarded in large quantities to this country by tourists, for cultivation in Alpineries. There is nota shadow of reason to suppose them native, or that they would establish themselves with us. ] [Thais rumina, Z.—A highly ornamental species— yellow, with numerous black bands and marginal crescents, and some carmine spots scattered over the wings. In the ntomologists’ Monthly Magazine for 1877, Mr. Herbert Goss recorded the capture of a specimen in the market at Brighton, but himself supplied its probable origin from a pupa imported with fruit from the Mediterranean. ] Family 2, PIERID&. Imaco, with slender antenne, distinctly clubbed, or thickened gradually to the apex. Anterior legs fully de- veloped. Wings with dorsal margins hardly concave, and hind margins rounded, hind wings having a hollow for the reception of the abdomen. Larva cylindrical, downy, without thoracic tentacle. Pura attached by the tail and a silken girth. 18 LEPIDOPTERA. Genus 1. APORIA, JAiib. Antenne long, strongly clubbed. Wings semi-transparent, white, with black nervures. Larva gregarious, beneath a common web. 1. A. Crategi, Z—Expanse, 24 to 2¢ inches. Wings ample, semi-transparent, white, with black nervures and margin. Creamy white, nervures black, margins blackish, cilia hardly perceptible, males having dusky clouds at the ends of the nervures of the fore wings. Female more transparent, blacker nervures, and with under side of fore wings dusky white, of hind wings pale yellow; nervures in both sharply black. Antenne black, tipped with yellow. Variation is very slight, mainly in size, and in the size and intensity of the cloudy patches at the apices of the nervures. The connecting nervure at the end of the discal cell sometimes spreads into a blotch. End of June, July. Larva blackish when young, and intensely gregarious, living under a white web in large families, which travel out in the morning and evening to feed. When full grown, the head and second segment are blackish, and the dorsal half of the body nearly of the same colour, with two longitudinal reddish stripes; the under portion from above the black spiracles is greyish or greenish-grey, as also are the pro-legs, the legs being black. Densely clothed with short hair. August to April or May. When full fed, the larve are said to be very sluggish, lying side by side on the twigs of the food plant, eating in preference the unexpanded buds, and when these are exhausted moving in company to another branch. Foop Puiants, hawthorn, blackthorn, cherry, plum, and fruit trees generally. Indeed, it is classed among injurious insects on the Continent, on account of the damage it does to orchards, but in this country it seems to have con- PIERIDE. 19 fined itself mainly to hawthorn and blackthorn (Cratwgus oxyacantha and Prunus spinosa). Much mystery hangs over this species. It is recorded as a common garden and meadow frequenting species by our earlier writers, extending back to 1667, according to Mr. C. W. Dale, whose history of the species is copious and ex- haustive; but evidently it has always fluctuated greatly in numbers, for Curtis and Stephens do not speak of it as a generally abundant butterfly. It was far more plentiful in the middle of the present century. Mr. Jenner Weir says that it was most abundant at Keymer, Sussex, in 1838, but soon afterwards disappeared. Mr. H. Goss, in a most in- teresting paper in the Hntomologists’ Monthly Magazine, says that in 1844 it was the commonest butterfly at Wye, Kent, but that in 1859 it disappeared. In 1856 it was plentiful at Ramsgate, Strood, Rochester, and between Herne Bay and Canterbury ; in 1864 Mr. Goss explored much of this district in search of it without seeing a specimen. In the former year, 1856, it had extended its range into the rich and lovely district which lies sheltered between the mountains of Wales in the west, and the hills of the Midlands in the east, and was abundant in Worcestershire and Herefordshire, as far as Ross, and at Tintern was still common in 1867, but in 1877 had almost disappeared, while the last Herefordshire specimen seems to have been taken in 1872 by Miss Hutchinson. In the prolific year 1856 it had become common as far west as Kidwelly, in Carmarthenshire, where is a belt of warm coast land, protected from the north winds by a range of low hills ; and until 1868-9 was abundant in Glamorganshire, but has long since disappeared. Canon Tristram found it in abun- dance on a grassy slope at Torquay in 1854, but it was never seen there again ; and Mr. Parfitt, of Exeter, had no knowledge of its existence in the county except an old record at Moreton Hemstead. Mr. Tutt says that it abounded near Rochester and Strood from 1850 to 1866, and that the larvee were most abundant and conspicuous on the hawthorns in the meadow 20 LEPIDOPTERA. hedges. In 1872, after much searching, he captured one butterfly, and since then it has not been seen there. It was also plentiful at Chattenden, but has become extinct there also. In 1857 it was abundant in the Forest of Dean and also in Somersetshire, and apparently in Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire. A few specimens were found in the Forest of Dean and around Coleford about 1870, and no more recent record is known from any one of these localities, in which it could not well be overlooked. In 1858 it was plentiful in the Isle of Thanet, and seems then to have made its appear- ance at Ashford, Kent, and in 1859 and 1860 at Cheltenham. In the New Forest it abounded in 1856, and also in 1866 and 1870, especially in a valley dotted with blackthorn bushes. From this time until 1878 it gradually decreased in numbers, and the last was taken in that year. Indeed, the most careful search has only made the fact too certain that from all these localities it has disappeared. Between Dover and Ramsgate a few were taken as lately as 1890, and this rich and favoured county of Kent seems to be its last resort, the last capture recorded being of one near Ramsgate by the son of Mr. T. H. Briggs. The suggestion has been made that it has been destroyed by the action of small birds, titmice especially, picking out the young larve from their hybernacula ; but this cause seems quite insufficient to explain the disappearance of so plentiful a species from so large an area. It is far more likely that wet summers and mild winters have been the cause of its destruction. There is no reason to believe that it has occurred farther north than Northamptonshire and Hereford- shire, or further west than the borders of Carmarthenshire, in these islands; but abroad it is of the widest distribution, being found even in Japan. PIERIDA. 21 Genus 2. PIERIS, Schrank. Antenne long and slender, distinctly clubbed. Wings opaque, creamy white, tips of fore wings blackish and rather pointed. Larva downy, gregarious in some species, but not under a common web, feeding mainly on cruciferous plants. 1. P. brassice, Z.—Expanse, 24 to 2? inches. Wings ample, creamy white, tips black. Female with large black spots. Creamy white, fore wings of the male having the base and costal margin blackish. ‘Apex broadly black, often dusted with whitish scales, and having internally dashes of black along two or three nervures. Hind wings with a small black costal spot. The female has a broader apical black blotch, and two large black spots on the outer half of the fore wings, from the lower of which a black blotch runs along the dorsal margin. Under side of the male having the fore wings creamy white, with yellow costa and apex and two large black spots; hind wings dull yellow. Female similar, but with larger spots, and with dusky scales on the hind wings. May and June; second emergence in July and August. Not usually variable, except in the presence or absence of the white dusting on the black apex. Mr. Briggs, who has studied this variation, says that the form having the white scales is especially common in the Midland counties and again in the Orkneys, but that the black-tipped form preponderates in both the north and south of England. At Sligo, Mr. Russ has taken a large dusky form of the female, with the black apical blotch much exaggerated, and throwing off strong black streaks inwards as far as the upper spot. From the north of Ireland a very small form has been obtained. Mr. Mosley records a sulphur-yellow male; and in the collection of the late Mr. N. Cooke, in the Liverpool Museum, are specimens with dusky nervures, and others with yellow cilia. Some, 22 LEPIDOPTERA. having a green suffusion from the nervures, have been shown to be discoloured by accidental or artificial means, from rup- ture of the nervures. In the Canaries an extraordinary variety is found, in which the spots beneath are united into a large coarse black “smudge.” It is called var. cheiranthi, and is totally un- known here. Larva yellowish-green, with black spots, dorsal and spiracular lines yellow. Head slate-coloured, dotted with— black, greenish-yellow beneath. Entirely covered with deli- cate whitish hairs. Feeding on all the cultivated varieties of the cabbage, in companies, passing the day side by side underneath the leaves. Also on other Crucifere, on Tropwolum majus and peregrinum, and even on Leseda. June and beginning of July, and again in September and October, or even into November. This second brood of larve is, in favourable seasons, so numerous that the whole crops of winter varieties of cabbage are defoliated by it, to the gardener’s intense disgust. In these cases, however, it nearly always happens that a minute parasite, Apanteles glomeratus, has multiplied in even greater proportion, and the vast majority of larvie, after spinning up, produce a bunch of yellow cocoons instead of the pupa. -Then the species is again reduced to moderate numbers. The angulated greenish puPA, with black and yellow dots, attached by its tail anda girth to walls, palings, and tree trunks, is familiar to every one. It may be seen all through the winter. The vast and sudden increase in numbers of the larva in the autumn is evidently due at times to a great immigration of the butterflies from abroad. Many cases are on record of the appearance of vast flights of this species at sea, sometimes so as to form clouds like a snow-storm, or to cover a vessel and its sails when they alighted. Such flights have also been PIERIDE. 23 observed to reach land, or have been found in great multi- tudes on the coast, where they had evidently just landed. Perhaps one of the most striking accounts is that by Mr. J. E. Robson of a visitation at Hartlepool, in which the butterflies in immense numbers were coming straight from the direction of the sea, and all travelling steadily towards the north-west continuously for three hours, until stopped by a violent storm, after which they discontinued the concerted migratory movement, and flew about generally. Universally distributed, except in the Shetland Isles. Also found in most temperate regions, extending as far as Japan. 2. P. rape, 2.—Expanse, 1} to 2 inches. Wings of moderate size, white with grey tips, female with two round spots, hind wings yellow beneath. Male creamy white, base and extreme apex of fore wings grey, sometimes a more or less distinct black spot beyond the middle. Female varying from creamy white to pale ochreous or much suffused with greyish scales, fore wings having the apex dark grey and two blackish spots beyond the middle, hind wings tinged with grey, and having a costal black spot. Under side of fore wings white with greyish-yellow costa and apex and two black spots (in the male occasionally with only one), hind wings rich yellow with a grey shade down the middle, and sometimes suffused with grey scales. Double- prooded—May and July—but actually upon the wing all the summer. Variation is in the male mainly in the extent and colour of the apical blotch, and in the presence or absence of a blackish spot above and below; in the female in the colour of the wings, the extent of grey shading, and the size of the spots. The brightest ochreous specimens seem to occur in the south of England in hot seasons, but ochreous and greyish-ochreous forms are found in the north of Scotland and the west of Ireland. The latter locality also furnishes white males with 24 LEPIDOPTERA. hardly a tinge of dark colouring at the tip. Svume from the Isle of Man are large, and have the under side of the hind wings very richly coloured. Larva downy, tapering to each extremity, dark green with niinute black dots and yellowish dorsal and spiracular lines. Feeding singly on cabbage and other Cruciferw, and very frequently on Z'ropw@olum ; occasionally on Reseda. June to end of autumn. Pura rather slender, angulated, whitish or pale buff, with blackish and yellow dots and points. Common in the same places as the preceding species and fastened in the same manner, but much smaller, having a curious power of adapting itself to the colour of its surroundings. ‘This is also a destructive species, but rarely to a serious extent. Very hardy ; the larva has been found feeding even into December, but always passes the latter part of the winter in the pupa state. Universally distributed, and ranging over most of the northern temperate regions. Mr. Pryer has found it in vast multitudes in Japan. In North America it appears to have been unknown before 1859. In 1865 it appeared in great numbers at Quebec, but whether as a migrant or as a casually introduced and rapidly increasing species was not ascertained ; but from that time it has spread into the United States, and has increased in Canada in such a manner as to become a source of great uneasiness and loss, so that effective steps have been taken, by introducing its parasitic Apanteles, to check its multiplication. Moreover, it has there developed a distinct yellow recurrent variety, apparently differing from those previously known. 3. P. napi, Z.—Expanse, 1} to 2 inches. White with nervures, tips and spots grey or black, under side of hind wings green-veined, White with grey nervures; fore wings of the male having the base, costa, and tips of the nervures blackish, a blackish PIERIDA. 25 blotch at the apex, and sometimes a spot of the same colour beyond the middle. Hind wings with a costal spot and tips of the nervures blackish. Female with the base, apex, and nervures of the fore wings more or less suffused with grey, and with two large blackish spots beyond the middle, the second of which unites with a grey cloud along the dorsal margin. Hind wings with black costal spot and grey nervures. Under side of fore wings white with grey nervures and yellow apex, and two more or less distinct black spots. Hind wings rich yellow, with all the nervures broadly green. In two broods, May or June, July or August, according to climate, but on the wing most of the summer. Variation very considerable, to some extent climatal, and also seasonal. A rather striking form, in which the nervures are blackish, the spots large and the hind margin of fore wings rounded, so as to differ in shape from ordinary specimens, occurs usually in the earlier brood, and is met with in many parts of the country. It was formerly considered a distinct species under the name of Sabellice. The south-west of Wales produces, rarely, in the first brood, a female variety in which the fore wings for half their extent are densely clouded with dark grey scales, but a tendency in the same direction is frequent, and all intermediate forms occur. In the north of Ireland—especially in the second brood—females occur in which the apex is strongly black, the spots large and the nervures above very much blackened ; and males of unusually large size in which the apices also are deep black, and a large round black spot appears on the upper side of the fore wings. In all these dark forms the “ green veins” beneath become dilated and blackened in proportion, but in the whiter forms in the English Midlands these become nearly yellow, or the suffusion disappears except near the base of the wings, leaving the latter almost without stripes. A most beautiful female of a bright canary-yellow was secured in one of the Norfolk fens by Mr. F. D. Wheeler and my eldest son. In this specimen the “veins” are pale grey. 26 LEPIDOPTERA. Yellowish females with darker nervures have been taken in Aberdeen, Inverness, Ross, and Fife; and at Sheo Mr. Russ has found them of a very pale yellow ground colour, but with the nervures above all broadly suffused with grey to their tips, a variation more closely approximating to the form called Bryonie—which occurs in Alpine districts—than any other yet seen by myself in these islands. A yellow variety, with dark nervures and clouded with grey, was taken in the south of England by Mr. 8. J. Capper many years ago. Mr. R. C. L. Perkins has recorded that the male of this species has, when alive, a distinct scent of verbena, and this is confirmed by Baron de Selys Longchamps and others, who, however, compare the perfume to lemon-scented mint. Larva very similar to that of rape, but without the yellow dorsal line. On Nasturtium officinale (watercress) and other Cruciferw, especially such as grow in damp places, but will eat Brassica (cabbage), Hesperis, Barbarea, Cochlearia and other plants. In June-July and August-September I have easily reared a brood upon a bunch of watercress placed in water in a sunny window. The eggs were laid in June, the earliest butterfly appeared within a month, and the remainder by the middle of August, except one which emerged in the following June. Pupa very similar to that of rapa, but greener and less dotted. Generally distributed, except that it seems to be absent from the extreme north of Scotland beyond the districts of toss and Moray. Widely distributed in temperate regions. 4, P. Daplidice, /.—Expanse, 2 inches, white with large central black spot and blotched tip, under side of hind wings with grey-green blotches. White, fore wings having a large blackish patch at the apex, broken by several elongated white spots, also a large divided black central spot. Hind wings clouded with the dark markings showing through from the under side, and PIERIDA. 27 having two or three dark grey cloudy spots and streaks along the costal margin. Under side of fore wings with markings as above, with the addition of two sub-marginal blackish spots, and having the apical patch dusky green; hind wings dusky green, spotted and streaked with white. Female similar, but the dark markings more prominent, an additional patch near the dorsal margin of the fore wings, and the hind wings mottled with blackish. Larva, greyish-blue, covered with small black granu- lations, with four longitudinal white stripes, and with a yellow spot on each segment. Legs and ventral surface white. Feeds on Cruciferw and Resedacee. Pupa grey, speckled with black, and with reddish stripes (Lang); but other authors say that the stripes in the pupa are yellow. The butterfly appears in May and August on the Continent, the larva in June and September. This is one of our rarest butterflies, but occurs now and then on the South Coast. A specimen of the May brood has been recorded in Devon, but this is a circumstance of extreme rarity, the captures made being usually in August. Its flight is said to be slow, from flower to flower, but this doubt- less arises from laneuor caused by a climate too chilly for its constitution. In hotter regions its flight is sufficiently bold and swift. A large proportion of the British specimens have been captured in East Kent, but isolated specimens have been taken in most of the southern coast counties and also in Essex. The Devil’s Dyke near Newmarket, and Gamlingay, Cambs, have been recorded as favourite localities for it from an early period, and its repeated occurrence in a locality so far inland as Newmarket seems to indicate the probability of its being native, but no proof of the capture of a larva or pupa in this country is obtainable, and the evidence so far is rather in favour of the view that the specimens taken are casual wanderers from abroad. There seems to be no doubt that 28 LEPIDOPTERA. specimens were reared forty years ago at Dover by Mr. Leplastrier, and Mr. 8. Stevens reminds me that Mr. Edwin Shepherd purchased four of these, which are now in Dr. Mason’s large collection; but these are said to have resulted from eggs laid by a female in captivity, and although specimens were reared, it is doubtful whether the larvee would have survived out of doors. It is certain that the species has been known in this country for nearly 200 years, and in some years several have been taken—about a dozen are recorded in 1872—and the absence of any record of the finding of the larva in all that period is at least suggestive. It is an abundant species in many parts of the Continent, particularly the Mediterranean region, and most plentiful in Turkey, where Lieut. Mathew says that the larvee abound on cruciferous plants in waste places by the roadsides, and in a succession of broods from April to October. It also ranges into Asia and Africa, and is one of the many British species found in Japan. Genus 5. ANTHOCHARIS. Antenne slender, strongly clubbed. Fore wings rounded at the apex. Under side of hind wings beautifully mottled with darker colours. Abdomen slender but not elongated. Larva slender, downy, tapering behind. On Crucifere. PupaA curiously triangular and somewhat boat-shaped. 1. A. Cardamines, 7.—Expanse, 14 to 1? inch. White, with black central spot and dark apex. Male with fore wings half orange colour. Hind wings mossed, with green beneath. White, fore wings in the male blackish at the base and apex, with a central black spot and a large orange-coloured space occupying the outer half of the wings. Hind wings blackish at the base and dappled with indications of the dark markings below. Hind margins of all the wings spotted with PIERIDE. 29 black. Female having no indication of the orange blotch, but with the central black spot and apical dark markings much larger, the latter often spotted with white. Under side of the fore wings in both sexes like the upper, except that the costa and apex are greenish, hind wings beautifully mossed or marbled with yellowish-green. Variation is mainly in the size of the central spot of the fore wings, and its position with regard to the orange blotch, in the colour of the latter, which is occasionally yellow, in suffusion of blackish from the apex over the orange blotch, and, in the female, in the absence or presence of white spots in the apical dark blotch. Mr. Briggs has a male with no dark central spot, Mr. Webb one with no dark apex, and the markings of the hind wings underneath yellow, and another with the ground colour above pale yellow, greenish below. Mr. Bond’s collection has one in which the hind wings above are sprinkled with black dots, Mr. Doubleday’s a female with yellow costa, and Mr, Adkin has one with a black V mark on the middle of the under side of the fore wings. One from Sligo is yellowish, with the black spot abnormally large, and several of the larger collections contain gynandromorphous specimens, in some of which, or in females, streaks of orange colour occur in erratic fashion. There is also a recurrent small variety, } inch less in expanse in both sexes, and in Surrey this variety occurred year after year, a day or two earlier in the spring than the ordinary form, with great regularity. It is not certain, however, that this is the rule. This common species is one of our loveliest butterflies, flying in May and June, though it has been found on the wing as early as April 17 in Surrey. Single-brooded, but in one instance, in 1886, several specimens of a second emergence were seen and captured in the neighbourhood of Maidenhead in the middle of September, and one was taken in August of that year in Sussex. Larva downy, bluish-green, yellowish-green beneath, and having a white spiracular line. On Cardamine pratensis, Sinapis 30 LEPIDOPTERA. arvensis, Hesperis matronalis, Erysimum alliaria, Turritis glabra, and other cruciferous plants, feeding in preference upon the seed pods. June to August. Pupa very curious, long and slender and sharply pointed at both ends, but with the tips of the wing-cases and adjacent ventral portion forming an obtuse projecting angle, which fits well to the under side of the insertion of a side shoot of the food plant, so that it is hardly distinguishable from a thickening of the stem. Indeed this species exhibits a series of curious adaptations to its surroundings, the larva being so like a seed-vessel as almost to defy detection, the white line down its sides actually simulating the line of light down the side of the glossy seed-vessel, and the butterfly, when in repose, with closed wings, on the tip of a flower spike of Cardamine pratensis—a favourite resort—seems at first sight a mere con- tinuation to the bunch of buds; while its accurate adaptation to the leaf of one of the smaller Umbelliferw, upon which also it commonly rests, is notorious. Such accurate mimicry in three stages of the life of the same insect is truly marvellous, Generally distributed in England, Wales, and Ireland, and found in Scotland as far north as Moray on the east and the Clyde district on the west. Genus 4. LEUCOPHASIA. Antenne short, slender, with broad clubs. Wings white. Fore wings narrow at the base, rounded at the apex. Abdomen long and slender. Larva downy, rather fusiform. Pura elongated, sharply pointed. 1. L. sinapis, Z—Expanse, 1} to 1? inch; weak, slender, wings white, narrow, tipped with blackish, grey beneath. PIERIDZ. 31 Creamy white; male with the base of the fore wings greyish, and the apex having a large blackish blotch, and frequently one or two blackish streaks on the nervures below it. Female with broader and rounder fore wings, which are sometimes spotless, at others with faintly grey clouding at the base and apex. Under side streaked and clouded with greenish-grey, especially in the hind wings. Variation inconsiderable. In the male, in the more or less squared shape of the apical blotch, and in the female, in its presence or absence, this being, however, in some measure determined by its time of emergence, the white females, which have received the varietal name of Diniensis, being almost invariably those of the second brood. In some instances the greenish-grey colour from the under side shows through the hind wings, and this form has also received a varietal name—Zathyri ; but these names appear valueless. May, June, and again in July and August. Larva delicate green, with dark green dorsal line, yellow spiracular line, and yellowish-green under surface. When young the spiracular line is whiter, and edged above with a tinge of reddish. Two broods: June-July and August-September. Feeding on Orobus tuberosus, Vicia cracea, and Lathyrus. Pura slender, pointed at each end, and swollen in the middle, but not protruding in front like that of the last species. This is a wood-frequenting species, exceedingly delicate in appearance,.and weak in flight. Fond of the open sides of woods, along which it gently flutters, resting now and then upon a blossom of Orobus, yet of an obstinate and restless disposition, which leads it, when confined in a pill-box, to flap about and break its wings across the middle, after which it is of little value as a specimen. In early seasons it is some- times on the wing, in warm southern woods, in the beginning of May, and the second emergence has appeared before tha 32 LEPIDOPTERA. end of June; but in the stormy west of Ireland it hardly emerges before June, and a second brood is apparently unknown. It is widely distributed in the south and west of Treland, and is found right up the sheltered west side of England, in Worcestershire and Herefordshire, and, again, among the hills and warm valleys from North Lancashire to Cumberland; but does not appear ever to have crossed the border into Scotland, and on the east side of England its range seems to extend hardly beyond the south of Lincoln- shire, though there are two records of isolated captures in Yorkshire. The single record for Norfolk proved to be an error. It may at one time have had a wider range in this country, since it has now disappeared from some of its former southern haunts, as, for instance, Lewes and other Sussex localities, but there is very little evidence. Mr. H. Goss, however, states that to his knowledge it was common in a wood at Polegate sixteen years ago, but has totally disappeared, and also that it is now extremely scarce in the New Forest, where it formerly abounded. It is probably to be found still somewhere in each county in the southern half of England, and in Wales has been found as far west as Carmarthenshire. Genus 5. COLIAS. Antenne red, short, thickened gradually to the apex. Fore wings with blackish marginal band and central spot. Hind wings with an orange central spot. Larva smooth, downy, slightly tapering, feeding on Leguminose. Pura slightly angulated and with a point in front. 1. C. hyale, Z.—Expanse, 1} to 2 inches. Yellowish- white, with black central spot and broad blackish margin to the fore wings. PIERIDZE. 33 Pale yellow. Fore wings with a black central spot, the extreme base dusted with blackish, base of costal margin reddish, and a smoky black hind marginal band, extremely broad at the apex, and narrowing off to the anal angle. Within this band is a curved row of pale yellow spots or blotches, variable in number. Hind wings with a central, usually double, orange spot, and indications of a dark broad marginal band, almost obliterated except at its outer edge. Cilia all reddish, Under-side: fore wings pale yellow, darker towards the apex, with a black central spot, and a row of reddish and black spots parallel with the hind margin. Hind wings deep yellow tinged with grey, having a double purplish-silvery central spot ringed with reddish, a dusky red blotch on the costal margin, and a row of similar smaller spots parallel with the hind margin. Head and antennie reddish, body clothed with silvery-white hairs. Variation mainly in the ground colour—from yellow to white in both sexes—and in the marginal dark band of the hind wings, which in some specimens encloses a row of large whitish blotches, but in others is, as to its inner margin, obsolete. A specimen in Mr. Bond’s cabinet is almost devoid of the band of the fore wings also, having only a few apical dusky blotches. Males are generally yellow, females frequently so. Occasionally a white male has a yellowish tinge towards the costa,and a white female the same towards the apex. Mr. Webb has a male with two black streaks from the central spot of fore wings beneath, and Mr. J. E. Robson a wonderful male, taken at Colchester, having the blackish colour of the apex of the fore wings above, continued inwards to the central spot. Found as a single brood in July and August, but on one or two occasions specimens of a second generation have been taken by Mr. Sydney Webb in the Dover district in September and October—perfectly fresh and but just emerged.