55 



SILVER-BOEDERED RINGLET. 



PLATE XXV. 



Hipparchia Hero. Ochsenheimer. Stephens. Curtis. 



Papilio Hero, Linn^us. Haworth. 



" SabcBus, Fabricius. 



" Mdibaus, Erm st. 



Ccenonympha Hero, Westwood. 



This is one of the rarest British insects; two specimens only being 

 all that at present are known so have occurred. One, a female, was 

 taken by Mr. Plastead, near Withyam, on the borders of Ashdown 

 Forest, Sussex, and Mr. Stephens states that he obtained another from 

 the neighbourhood of Lamberhurst, in the same county. Who knows 

 however, how many may have been overlooked, or how many may yet 

 be taken by keen observers, who act upon the moral conveyed in Mrs. 

 Barbauld's instructive story of "Eyes and no Eyes.'" 



This butterfly measures about one inch and a half in the expanse of 

 its wings; they are of a general fulvous brown colour. The fore wings 

 are paler along the front edge, and have an orange stripe close to the 

 hind margin, near which are two small indistinct orange-coloured eyes 

 with brown centres. 



The hind wings have also a narrow orange stripe near the outer 

 margin, above which are four large black eyes, with minute whitish- 

 coloured pupils, and surrounded by a broad orange ring. 



Underneath, the fore wings are of the same general colour as the 

 upper side, but there is a narrow silver stripe adjoining the orange one. 

 In the hiud wings there is a continuation, as it were, of the silver 

 stripe througli them, and also an irregular whitish bar rather beyond 

 the middle, succeeded by orange, in which are seven eyes of different 

 sizes, the two nearest the inner corner being the smallest, and confluent, 

 the eye being black, with a white pupil, and surrounded by a rim of 

 orange. I imagine that probably these eyes are variable both in number 

 and size. 



