122 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



almost entirely of specimens from that county. Curiously 

 enough, no confirmation of the insect being British was forth- 

 coming till a year or two ago, when Mr. Bethune-Baker exhi- 

 bited a series of Lyccena dispar and L. rutila which had been 

 captured together, many years ago, by his late father ; but the 

 locality was not recorded. Stephens expressly asserts that no 

 specimens agreeing with this species had been met with among 

 hundreds taken ^t Whittlesea Mere; and Mr. Bethune-Baker's 

 specimens possibly came from some locality which was de- 

 stroyed still earlier than the Mere. 



This insect is common through Central and Eastern Europe, 

 and Northern and Western Asia in July and August. In 

 Western Europe, however, it becomes very local, though it is 

 less exclusively confined to marsh-lands than L. dispar. 



The Dark-Underwing Copper is so similar to the Large 

 Copper that many entomologists do not consider it to be truly 

 distinct. It is of a smaller average size, of a less reddish 

 colour in the male, and the spots are all much smaller and 

 less numerous, there being generally only one basal spot 

 within the discoidal lunule on the fore-wings above. The 

 under surface is generally greyish-ashy, sometimes more or 

 less tinged with blue at the base, and the hind-wings are black 

 in the female, with a sub-marginal orange band, but rarely 

 orange along the nervures. The orange sub-marginal band be- 

 neath is likewise much narrower in both sexes than in L. dispar. 



Larva green, with a paler lateral stripe. It feeds on various 

 species of Rumex and on Polygotium bistortum (Lang). 



IV. THE PURPLE-EDGED COPPER. LYC^ENA HIPPOTHOE. 



(Plate LI. Figs, i, 2.) 



Papilio hippothoe^ Linn. Faun. Suec. p. 274 (1760); Esper, 

 Schmett. i. (i) p. 292, pi. 22, fig. 3 (1777); p. 342, 



pi. 35* fi S- 



