72 



KEY. C. M. PERKINS BRITISU I3UTTEKFLIES. 



laries, which ubouud wherever they do occur at all, confine them- 

 selves to a small spot of ground, so that, while one person may 

 collect a hundred in a sinf!,le wood, another may miss the spot and 

 Avalk for hours, perhaps within a short distance of their haunt, and 

 never catch a single specimen. I have done so in seeking Artemis^ 

 which a neighbour of mine, who refused to disclose his hunting 

 ground, though he would readily give away specimens, could take 

 by hundreds. 



Of the third family, Erycinida^, but one species honours our 

 country, or even Europe, so it will not detain us long. In this 

 family the males resemble the last in having only four good legs, 

 though the females possess the full complement of six. The larvae 

 are onisciform, i.e. of the shape of the woodlouso. The sole repre- 

 sentative, Ncmeohms Liicina, the Duke of Burgundy, in the butterfly 

 state is very similar to the true fritillaries we have just been con- 

 sidering, though in size very far inferior. It is early in appearance, 

 and may be looked for in woods after the first week of May 

 wherever any open space allows a brilliant sunshine. I have not 

 caught it in this county yet, but found it common in Gloucester- 

 shire and Oxfordshire, and hear that it may be secured on Berk- 

 hampstead Common. 



And so to the fourth family, the Lycfcnidse, which, like the last, 

 are onisciform in the larva state, but males and females alike have 

 six perfect legs. Of Thecla Betulce, the bi'own hairstreak, the first 

 in order, 1 can say little from my own knowledge, having only seen 

 it once alive, and that in Gloucestershire, but it seems to occur in 

 most of the southern and midland counties, and to be common in 

 Epping Forest, so we may reasonably expect to see it here. It is a 

 good-sized insect of a dark brown colour, with more or less yellow 

 on its fore-wings, varying with its sex, and two or three spots of 

 the same colour at the bottom of the lower wings. August is its 

 time for flying, and tall hedgerows the best place to look for it. 

 Thecla Pnmi, the dark hairstreak, is a smaller insect much 

 resembling the male of the latter. It is far more uncommon, 

 appearing earlier in the year, and hardly ever taken out of the 

 county of Huntingdon. Thecla W. alium, the black hairstreak, 

 so like the preceding that for some time they were not recog- 

 nised as separate species, is a little darker in colour on the upper 

 side, and may be distinguished by the underside having a zigzag 

 white line forming a W near the anal angle. I have taken this insect 

 in Gloucestershire, just outside Dean Forest, in gardens and sheltered 

 valleys, but never more than one at a time, so that I think it must 

 be rare there. July is the proper month to find it flying, and as 

 it has been taken in counties contiguous to this, it is not improbable 

 that Hertfordshire produces it as well. Thecla Quercus, the 

 purple hairstreak, so named from a purple blush overspreading the 

 dai-k pround colour of its wings, much plainer in the female, and 

 confined to a dash in the fore-wings, is a common butterfly, and 

 may be seen, if not caught, in Bricket Wood any sunny day at the 

 beginning of August. It is a high flyer, and therefore hard to 



