2G 



BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



broad lateral stripe, which, however, does 

 not reach the head, since the prothorax is 

 either altogether green at the sides, or is only 

 pale reddish posteriorly. The anal plate is 

 ptirple-coloured only for a narrow space ante- 

 riorly at the sides. The belly is pale green, 

 with many whitish bristles. The claspeis are 

 short, pale yellowish, rather transparent, with 

 short cylindrical feet, with a darker yellowish 

 circlet of hooks ; the legs are spotted with 

 black anteriorly. When the time of pupation 

 approaches, the caterpillar becomes of a paler 

 green, and crawls about restlessly to seek a 

 place for spinning. As I once lost the cater- 

 pillars of Lyccena Amyntas at this period of 

 their lives, because they could find no place 

 suitable for their change, I laid crumpled 

 paper, gauze, dry elm and poplar leaves, and 

 old stalks of wormwood, amongst the plants 

 of storksbill. As, however, with the cater- 

 pillar which first becan.e restless all this 

 appeared of no avail, I shut up the two most 

 bleached and shrunk in a small wooden box, 

 in which both gauze and paper lay. Here, 

 after five or six days, they became quiet, and 

 changed to chrysalids without spinning. The 

 others in the flower-pot changed on the earth, 

 nearly free. I had almost come to the con- 

 clusion that spinning in Medon is altogether 

 omitted ; however, two spun up quite in the 

 usual Lyccena style, on a white silken web, 

 and with a thread round the body ; one of 

 these was in the cavity of an old elm leaf, 

 the other on a willow leaf, ,between stems of 

 Artemisia, which it had drawn together with 

 some transverse threads, forming as it were 

 the rudiments of a cocoon. By the 28th of 

 April all the eight had assumed the chrysalis 

 state. Out-of-doors the caterpillars, owing 

 to the hitherto inclement weather, were cer- 

 tainly not so far advanced. The CHRYSALIS has 

 the usual Lyccena form, is from four to five 

 lines long, the males smaller and more slender 

 than the females, naked, only at the head and 

 on the upper part of the back with isolated, 

 very short whitish bristles, only perceptible 

 with the aid of a lens; the colour is rather 

 transparent pale amber, more or less greenish, 

 with slight lustre : the opaque body is more 



of a pale yellow. Over the eye is a abort 

 curved, (shining black line. The convex thorax 

 is separated fiom the equally convex back of 

 the body by a saddle-like depression. The 

 body has a dorsal stripe of reddish-purple, 

 more or less brilliant, and a similar lateral 

 stripe of different breadth, which also shows 

 through the upper margin of the wing-cover. 

 The anal extremity, which is concealed in the 

 empty skin of the caterpillar, is obtuse, rounded, 

 and without spines or bristles. It is immov- 

 able, and is held fast by a fine white thread, 

 which is drawn round the base of the body, 

 and by the exuvia, on its silken couch. The 

 exclusion of the butterfly takes place accord- 

 ing to the temperature, in from two to three 

 week s. " Zeller. 



TIME OF APPEARANCE. The butterfly ap- 

 pears twice in the year, in May and August. 



LOCALITIES. Mr. Birchall informs us that 

 this species is taken atDundrum, nearDublin; 

 there is no record of its occurrence in the Isle 

 of Man or in Scotland. In England it is 

 widely, and, I may say, generally distributed, 

 but does not occur in the lists transmitted me 

 from Berkshire, Cumberland, Cheshire, Mid- 

 dlesex, or Shiopshire. 



Castle Eden Argus (Lyczna Salmacis). Female. 



CASTLE EDEN ARGU& " Wings brown- 

 black ; beneath brownish, with subocellated 

 spots : fore wings above with a discoidal 

 black spot in the male, a white spot in the 

 female : hind wings with a red sub-marginal 

 baud on both sides." Stephens. 



Obs Having already expressed my opinion 

 as to the insect not having a claim to be 

 ranked as a species, and feeling quite incom- 

 petent to differentiate this supposed species 

 from those which immediately precede and 

 follow it, I hold myself excused from writing 

 a description from nature, and adopt without 

 alteration that published by my late lamented 



