126 



BRITISH BUTTERFLIES 

 SPECIES 1.— PAMPHILA BUCEPHALUS. THE GREAT-HEADED SKIPPER. 



Piute xl. ivi. 1—Z. 



.SvNONVMEs.— (J ItespcrUi VilclUus '. F.aljnciiis, Eat. Sjst. iii. a. 

 p. 3'27. Abbot anil Smith, Ins. of (;corgi;i ? ? 

 PiipUio Vile/liui, II:i«oitIi, Etit. Trans, t. 334. 



PaiiijihiUi ViteUins, Stephens. 



2? Pamphila BacfphalitSy Stepli. 111. ITaust, vol. 1, pi. 10, 

 1, -3 ; vol. 4, p. 383. Wood, Ind. Ent. t. 3, fig. 83. 



It is a cui-ii)us cirtniinstancc that this evidently Nurili American insect should have been captured .several 

 times, at distant ])eriods, and in reniute parts of this country. 



Tlie short Latin character given by Fabricius of his species Vitellius is as follows : — " Alis divaricatis fulvis ; 

 antiels macula media margineque, posticis limbo fuscis," and will agree with the supposed male ; out his more detailed 

 character, " antenna: annulata?," and " alas omnes fulvre immaculata?,'" and his habitat "in American mcridionalis 

 insulis," will not exactly accord with it. I have therefore, considering the great similarity of so many of the 

 species, preferred to give the North American species which has been captured in this country, under the name 

 of Bucephalus of Stephens, considering with Jlr. Doubleday that the specimens which in this country have been 

 described under the name of Vitellius may perhaps be its males. 



The head and thorax of the males are clothed with greenish, fulvous hairs ; the front of the antonnre and of 

 the club is fulvous, the hind part brown ; the fore wings arc tawny above, with slender, black veins. In the 

 centre of the disk is a large, black, oval spot, the anterior part of which, as well as the base within, is velvety, 

 the remainder silky ; the outer margin is broadly brown, and uninterrupted, although irregularly notched withhi, 

 two small, connected, transverse, fulvous spots near the tip separating part of the dark border (which thu.s forms 

 an almost insulated, suboval spot, running further into the disk of the wing) from the rest. The hind w ings 

 above are darker tav/ny, with black veins, and a broad, irregiilarly-notched, dusky border all round the wing, 

 broken near the anal angle by a longitudinal streak of orange, running to the margin. Beneath, the wings are 

 paler tawny, the base of the fore wings black, and the tips slightly brown, preceded by two small, transverse 

 patches of paler buff colour, the upper one being farthest removed from the tip of the wing. The hind wings are 

 marked along the margin with some very slight dusky spots, indicating tlie dark border of the upper side, and 

 there is a slight dusky spot in the middle of the disk. The under sides of the head and breast are pale bufif. The 

 expansion of the wings is a little more than an inch and a quarter. This description will accord with that given by 

 Mr. Stephens of Vitellltis, which species is stated by ilr. Ilaworth, in the Entomological Transaction-s, (p. 334,) 

 to have been caught in Bedfordshire by the Eev. Dr. Abbott, although ho added that he possessed specimens of 

 the same from Georgia. My description is made from a North American specimen in my collection*. With 

 the exception of Mr. Curtis's statement, that " he believes Mr. Ilatchett has a pair which he purchased," no 

 other instance is recorded of the eai)ture of Vitellius in this country. 



Of Bucephalus, however, or the insect which is regarded by Jlr. Doubleday as the female of the supposed 

 V^itellius, two specimens were taken in the neighbourhood of Barnstaple in Devonshire by W. Raddon, Esq., and 

 communicated to Mr. Stephens, who published a figure of this presumed species. In his Catalogue, however, 

 (Ilaust. p. 28,) and in the appendix to his fourth volume, he indicated these as males. His figures, however, 



* It is pioper to observe that the Vitellius of Abbot and Smith comes nearer to tbe Fabiician description of Vitellius than that given above. 

 The specimen represented in our figure appears identical with the Au-ias of the LinniEan and British Museum Cabinets. But the Augias is 

 described as a native of Java and India. The Augias of Donovan's Indian Insects must surely be a distinct species. 



