1 68 THE BOOK OF BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



than formerly, and has in places occurred profusely 

 notably, near Ripley, in 1827. Like many another butter- 

 fly, it has a liking for bramble-blossoms, and may there 

 be sought, though it often soars aloft over the elm-trees 

 on which, maybe, its youth was passed. 



Though possibly not a Scotch or Irish butterfly, it is 

 fairly well distributed in England, having been taken in 

 the following counties at least : York, Derby, Nottingham, 

 Stafford, Shropshire, . Lincoln, Warwick, Northampton, 

 Suffolk, Cambridge, Hereford, Huntingdon, Buckingham, 

 Gloucester, Worcester, Dorset, Somerset, Berks, Hamp- 

 shire, Surrey, Sussex, Oxon., Middlesex, Kent, Wilts., 

 Essex, and Glamorgan. 



The eggs are laid in late summer or autumn on the 

 bark of one of our two native elm-trees, the Wych Elm 

 (Ulmus montana) and the Common Elm (U. campestris). 

 They hatch in the spring, and the caterpillars may 

 be beaten from the above trees in May and June. The 

 imago appears in June, and is on the wing till August. 



The larva (Fig. 185) is shaped like the rest of its 

 genus, the black, shining head being retractile within 

 the second segment. Fine hairs are to be found over 

 the whole of the body, which is bright green in colour, 

 the ridges on the back being yellowish. Each segment 

 bears on each side two pale yellowish oblique lines. 

 The divisions between the segments are distinct. 



Such in substance is Newman's description in " British 

 Butterflies," but in The Entomologist for 1873, the 

 same authority describes the larva as, dingy-brown 

 dorsally, approaching to red-brown on the sides, and to 

 green in the interspaces of the segments. The ventral 

 area is also greenish. On each side of each segment 

 are two oblique and very ill-defined stripes of a paler 

 shade. Legs and claspers are pale dingy-green. Buckler 



