HESPERID^. 303 



dorsal line from the head spike nearly to the tail ; a pale bufif 

 subdorsal line boixlered with reddish brown ; and then a 

 shorter buff line edged below with reddish brown ; wing- 

 cases and ventral surface pale flesh colour, faintly tinged 

 with dusky; tongue-case straight and dark brown. Sus- 

 pended by the tail and a silken belt round the middle. 

 (Hellins). Mr. Hell ins suspects that pupation, in a state of 

 nature, would take place within the hybernaculum, but this 

 appears doubtful. 



The Rev. Canon Fowler, who is familiar with this butterfly 

 in the Lincolnshire woods, says that it flies with great 

 rapidity, and is rather hard to follow with the eye as it dashes 

 along a glade or ride of the wood. It is fond of sitting on 

 the blossoms of ground ivy {Ncpeta fjhchoma or Glcchoma 

 hfilcracca) and sits with its wings obliquely open at an angle 

 of from 90 to 120 degrees. Mr. H. Goss says that it is very 

 partial to the flowers of Ajuga reptans (Bugle) about which 

 it is constantly buzzing. Attached to open glades and wood 

 paths, especially those in which flowers are plentiful, and 

 looks very brilliant in colour when at rest in the sunshine. 



Its principal haunts in this country apipear now to be the 

 larger woods of Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire. Pro- 

 bably, at one time, much more widely distributed. Formerly 

 it was common near Kettering ; in Barnewell and Ashton 

 Wolds ; at Oundle ; between Woodstock and Enstone ; at 

 Monks Wood and St. Ives, Hunts ; and at Chai-lbury, 

 Houesfield, and Wychwood Forest, Oxfordshire; and pro- 

 bably still exists in some of these localities. It was known 

 to occur at Gamlingay, Cambs. from 1803 to 1842, when it 

 disappeared from that district. ]\Ir. N. M. Richardson has 

 specimens which he knows to have been taken near Stow- 

 market ; and the Rev. H. Williams has seen one which was 

 taken by a lad near Thetford. It is also recorded from near 

 Grantham, and Newark, Notts ; once from Netley near 

 Southampton, and, by Mr. Moncreaff, at Southwick, Hants ; 



