AND THEIR TRANSFORMATIONS. R9 
DESCRIPTION OF PLATE XXVII. 
Insects.—Fig. 1, Thecla Spini, male. 2, The female. 3. Showing the under side, 4. The Caterpillar. 5. The Chrysalis. 
ee Fig. 6. Theela Iicis, female. 7. Showing the under side. 8. The Caterpillar. 9. The Chrysalis. 
Prants.—Fig. 10. Prunus Spinosa (Sloe). 
A Fig. 1]. Quercus Ilex. 
It is doubted by many, whether either of the above-named insects is British, but as they are said to have been captured upon one or two 
occasions, this work would not be complete without them. T. Spini is from a pair of German specimens in the British Museum. T. Ilicis from 
the figure of Hiibner; and the larve of both are from the same source. H. N. H. 

SPECIES 5.—THECLA SPINI. THE PALE BROWN HAIR-STREAK BUTTERFLY. 
Plate xxvii. fig. 1—5. 
Synonymes.—Hesperia Spini, Fabricius, Hiibner, Pap. pl. 75, Papilio Lynceus, Esper. 1, pl. 39, fig. 3. 
fig. 376, 377. Strymon Spini, Hiibner. 
Papilio Spini? Haworth, Ent. Trans. 1, p. 336. Lycena Spini, Ochsenheimer. 
Thecla Spini, Jermyn, Stephens, Wood Ind. Entomol. fig. 53, 
Curtis? 
In the third part of the Transactions of the old Entomological Society, of which the late Mr. Haworth was 
the main support, we find in a list of species of butterflies which had been exhibited from time to time before 
the Society, one called the pale brown hair-streak with the trivial name Papilio Spini attached, but accompanied 
by a mark of interrogation. This specimen was stated by Mr. Haworth to Mr. Curtis to have been purchased 
in an old English collection. Mr. Stephens, however, gave the Thecla Spini as an undoubted native species, 
on the further authority of a specimen which he states to have been taken in Norfolk by Mr. Sparshall*. He 
however gives a translation of the Fabrician character of T. Spini instead of a description either of Mr. Haworth’s 
or Mr. Sparshall’s specimens, which is the more to be regretted as Mr. Curtis states not only that Mr. Sparshall 
received his specimen from some of his correspondents in town (thus rendering its real indigenousness question- 
able), but that Mr. Haworth’s specimen neither agreed with Hiibner’s figure of Spini nor with Mr. Stephens’ 
(that is the Fabrician) description of the same species. I regret that I have not been able to obtain access to 
either of these two repeated specimens for comparison, in consequence of the deaths of both Mr. Haworth and 
Mr. Sparshall. Mr. Haworth, however, allowed Mr. Wood to make a drawing of his specimen, the under side 
of which is accordingly represented in the Index Entomologicus, pl. 2, fig. 53, of the natural size, the fore wings 
measuring about an inch in expanse ; the ground celour is pale brown, the fore pair having a transverse, straight, 
white streak beyond the middle of the wing extending from the costa, but not reaching the anal angle, and edged 
internally with a black streak. A similar white streak edged within with black extends across the hind wings 
to the anal edge, where it forms a letter W more obtuse than in Th. W-Album, but more clearly marked than 
in T. Pruni. The anal angle is brown, with a fulvous marginal streak, and there is a large fulvous patch with 
a black dot at the base of the tail, which is much longer than in any other English species. The base of the 
cilia is black. The true Spini closely resembles T. Pruni, the upper surface of the wings being of a brown 
colour, the hind pair having several red spots next the margin. The tip of the tail is white. Beneath, the 

* Many specimens of the Thecla Spini are stated by Mr. Hoy, in Loudon’s Magazine of Natural History (vol. 2, p. 88), to have been taken 
by Mr. Seaman, of Ipswich. The insects in question were Th. Pruni. 
