DESCRIPTIVE NOTICES OF CONSPICUOUS SPECIES 115 



FAMILY IV. LYOENID^E. 



CHRYSOPHANUS PHLCEAS. THE SMALL 

 COPPEE BUTTERFLY. 



(Plate II., Fig. 3.) 



A very pretty species, common throughout the 

 country, often enlivening by its presence our last 

 autumnal walk. 



The expansion of the wings is about 1 inch to 1J. 

 The fore-wings are bright coppery red, spotted with 

 black, and with the hind margin blackish ; the hind- 

 wings are blackish, with a bright coppery red hind 

 margin. The underside of the hind-wings is ashy- 

 brown, with faintly darker spots. 



The larva, shaped like a woodlouse, is green, with a 

 reddish dorsal line, and a red stripe on each side. It 

 feeds on sorrel, in May, July, and September. 



The perfect insect makes its appearance at the end of 

 May and is to be met with almost constantly up to the 

 middle of October, when sitting on the flowers of rag- 

 wort, scabious, or thistle, occasionally turning round, 

 and now and then starting off to combat with some 

 passing butterfly, nearly twice its size, it cannot fail to 

 attract the attention of any lover of Nature. 



An allied but considerably larger species is the Large 

 Copper Butterfly (Ghrysophanus dispar). It used to 

 be common in the fenny districts of Cambridgeshire 

 and Huntingdonshire, but since the extensive draining 

 operations in that part of the country more especially 

 since the draining of Whittlesea Mere the insect has 

 not been observed. Possibly there are still some small 

 fen-districts where the species still occurs. Indepen- 



