138 



BRITISH BUTTEK FLIES. 



colour and texture of the egg much resemble 

 white porcelain, with the slightest possible 

 tint of green, excepting the circular space at 

 (he pole occupied by the smaller cells, where 

 the green tint is very decided and the limits 

 of this darker colour are clearly defined. On 

 the 4th of July a CATERPILLAR escaped from 

 the egg-shell, and a considerable portion of 

 shell was also absent, as though eaten by the 

 late occupant; the remaining portion of the 

 egg-shell was perfectly colourless, and exhi- 

 bited a still greater resemblance to fine porce- 

 lain. The extruded caterpillar was colourless, 

 but the intestinal canal, filled with an orange- 

 coloured substance like the yolk of a duck's 

 egg, was plainly perceptible. Each segment 

 of the body emits a few scattered hairs : these 

 seem particularly observable near the anal 

 extremity. Mr. Porritt, of Huddersfield, 

 advanced one step farther. He informs us, 

 at page 166 of the same journal, lhat on the 

 4th of May two young caterpillars emerged 

 from eggs in his possession ; one of these, 

 which had a black head and a pinki.-h body, 

 he placed on a fresh flower-head of thyme, to 

 which it soon attached itself so closely, and 

 was so similar in appearance, that it was with 

 difficulty he could distinguish it. It fed well 

 until the 14th, when he found it stretched out 

 at full length along the mid-rib on the upper 

 side of a thyme leaf ; and, being in the same 

 position the next day, he concluded that it 

 was about to undergo its final moult. A day 

 afterwards this change was effected, and Mr. 

 Porritt then made the following description : 

 Length, about one-sixth of an inch ; stout, 

 but tapering towards the head, which is much 

 smaller than the second segment ; the general 

 colour was dirty pink, the head brown and 

 shiny; behind the head is a large, almost 

 plate-like, dull black mark, from which ex- 

 tends the rather broad, conspicuous, rust- 

 coloured dorsal line ; the body is sparingly 

 clothed with light brown hairs. 



TIME OF APPEARANCE. In 1835, June 8 

 and 15; in 179, June 28; in 1836, June 

 29; in 1833, July 3; in 1799, July 5 and 

 ; ami in 1819, July 14. J. G. Dak. 



LOCALITIES. It has not been reported from 



Ireland, Scotland, or the Isle of Man. In 

 England it is decidedly local, its ascertained 

 range being restricted to the ten counties 

 mentioned below. Its " metropolis," if I 

 may borrow an expression from the revered 

 fathers of British entomology, is in South 

 Devon ; it has occurred in some abundance 

 in Somersetshire, and on the Cotswold Hills 

 in Gloucestershire; from Gloucestershire we 

 ascend to a Midland county, Northampton- 

 shire, in which county a considerable number 

 have been taken : the remaining seven counties 

 have produced but few specimens. All our 

 recent information respecting this species 

 is contained in the "Entomologist," from 

 which journal I have made the following 

 extracts : 



Bedford shire. Taken in Bedfordshire and 

 sent to me by my friend, Dr. Abbott A: II. 

 Haworth, in " Lepidoptera Britannica," page 

 45. 



Buckinghamshire. Clifden Lewin. 



Devonshire. It occurs only on the mica 

 slate formation from Bolt Head to Bolt Tail 

 during the latter part of June and beginning 

 of July J. J. Reading. I was very suc- 

 cessful this year [1865] in capturing on the 

 17th of June thirty -six specimens of Lyccena 

 Arion near Plymouth, some of them much 

 wasted ; the weather was very boisterous, but 

 I fortunately got into a sheltered nook under 

 some high cliffs where apparently there had 

 been a land-slip some years before : the 

 ground was very rough, and it was with 

 great difficulty that I could travel over it, or 

 I should have taken more G. C. Bignell, 

 " Entomologist" vol. ii., p. 295. From the 

 Bolt Hea'd to the Bolt Tail. One year I took 

 it wasted on the 14th of June, but the follow- 

 ing year it did not make its appearance until 

 the 7th of July. Ano ( her year I found it very 

 sparingly on the 14th of July, and then only 

 just coming out. It is an insect, in my 

 opinion, which, if not taken within two days 

 of its emerging from the chrysalis, is worth 

 nothing for a cabinet specimen, for the white 

 fringe will then be gone, as well as most 

 of the blue scales on the upper side of the 

 wings. Anyone desiring to lake this insect 



