AND THEIR TRANSFORMATIONS. 61 
The fore wings also exhibit near the anal angle several additional white spots; and the anal edge of the hind 
wings is pale bluish. 
A remarkable variety in which the white spots on the wings are nearly effaced, the white band being also 
entirely or nearly obliterated, as well as the dark mark on the under side, is figured by the Rey. W. T. Bree, in 
Loudon’s Magazine of Natural History, vol. v. p. 667. The specimen was taken near Colchester, by Dr. MacLean. 
Mr. Ingall also possesses a similar specimen from the same neighbourhood. 
The caterpillar is green, with the head, legs, and dorsal tubercles reddish. It feeds on the honeysuckle. A 
careful figure of it, from an original drawing in the collection of M. Boisduval, is given in the Crochard edition 
of the Régne Animal, Ins. pl. 137, fig. 4. ‘The chrysalis has the head beaked and bifid, and a very large and 
prominent dorsal appendage. It is brownish or green with golden spots. 
The butterfly appears in July, and is a rare species, although formerly more abundant ; it appears widely 
distributed over the southern parts of the kingdom. Near Peterborough ; near Ipswich ; Hartley Wood, Essex ; 
near Rye ; Coombe Wood ; near Finchley ; Birchwood, Kent ; Enborne Copse, Berks ; New Forest : “ abundantly 
in woods near Winchester ; also a specimen in the Isle of Wight.” Rev. W. T. Bree, MSS. 
“The graceful elegance displayed by this charming species when sailing on the wing is greater perhaps than 
can be found in any other we have in Britain. There was an old aurelian of London so highly delighted at the 
inimitable flight of Camilla, that long after he was unable to pursue her he used to go to the woods and sit down 
on a stile for the sole purpose of feasting his eyes with her fascinating evolutions.” (Haworth, Lep. Brit. p. 30.) 


The remaining British species belonging to the family Nymphalide constitute a group of very great extent ; the 
number of the European species being considerably greater than one-third of the whole of the Diurnal Lepidoptera 
of Europe. They form the genus Hipparchia of Fabricius (together with part of his genus Melanitis, or the 
subsequently-named genus Satyrus of Latreille, or Erebia of Dalman). By Boisduval they are formed into a 
distinct tribe, Satyrides (Satyride, Swainson), and by Hiibner into a stirps named Driades; whilst by 
Dr. Horsfield they are considered as the types of one of the five primary divisions of the Diurnal Lepidoptera, 
most of the other Nymphalide belonging to one of his other primary divisions. 
These butterflies are of the middle size, with the wings ornamented beneath with eye-like spots, and entire or 
scalloped, but never angulated, nor with the outer margin of the fore wings concave. They have the discoidal 
cell of the hind wings closed, whilst the base of one or more of the longitudinal veins of the fore wings is 
dilated and vesiculose. The arrangement of these veins offers no difference between this genus and the other 
Nymphalide. The two fore legs are minute and rudimental in both sexes ; the antenne are terminated by a 
curved club, which is generally slender and spindle-shaped, but in a few species very distinct ; the eyes are either 
naked or hairy; the palpi are not close together, the under side being clothed with long hairs. But the most 
characteristic mark of distinction consists in the form of the caterpillars, which are attenuated at the posterior 
extremity, and pisciform, with the tail terminated by a small fork ; the body is destitute of spines, and is generally 
pubescent, with the head more or less rounded, and sometimes heart-shaped. The chrysalis is but very slightly 
angulated, and almost destitute of prominent tubercles. 
The species feed exclusively upon the different species of grasses, and are consequently widely dispersed almost 
over the whole globe. 
