217 



Donovan, in his "Natural History of British Insects/' 1798, writes, 

 " A very generally diffused species, but not common ; it is similar to the 

 Papilio sylvanus of Linnaeus, or He&peria sylvanus of Fabricius, which is in 

 the greatest abundance in the skirts of woods in summer." 



Stephens, in his "Illustrations," 1828, writes, "Less common than the 

 P. sylvanus, but nevertheless pretty abundant ; it frequents the borders of 

 woods and shrubby places, towards the end of July." 



Newman, in his " British Butterflies," 1871, writes, "In England it is 

 generally abundant, more particularly in the southern and midland counties, 

 but has mysteriously disappeared from many places where it was formerly 

 common ; in Essex, it occurs in open swampy places that are covered with 

 rushes." 



It is a very abundant species in Dorsetshire, both on the coast and inland. 



HESPERIA ACTION 

 Lulworth Skipper. 



ACTION, Esp. Actse'on, a hunter, who seeing the goddess Diana bathing 

 in a fountain, was changed by her into a stag, and then was pursued and 

 devoured by his own hounds, who took him for a real stag. Ovid. Met. 



The wings on the upperside are of a dull rich brown, shot with fulvous, 

 and with a narrow dark hind-margin. The male has a black line from the 

 cen'tre of the wing nearly to the base of the inner margin. The female 

 has a curved row of rather pale fulvous spots. On the underside, a greenish 

 tawny is the prevailing colour. The width across the wings is from an inch 

 to an inch and two lines. 



The only varieties, I have seen or heard of, are a couple of females with- 

 out the spots, in my own collection. 



The egg does not appear to have ever been described. 



The caterpillar is of a cylindrical shape, but tapers somewhat towards both 

 the head and tail. It is of a pale greyish green, with two yellowish longi- 

 tudinal lines down the back, the space between them being rather darker 

 than the ground colour, and a yellowish line at the sides. The ventral area 

 is marked on the tenth and eleventh segments with a snow white patch, 

 which appears to be a peculiarity of the whole genus. The colour of the 

 head is brown in the young caterpillar, pinkish green in the old ones, with 

 two lines down the face. The spiracles are of a pale flesh colour, and the 

 legs are very short and of a green colour. It feeds on grasses, Brachypodium 

 gylvaticum, Triticum repens t Calamagrostis epigejos, &c. The habit of feed- 

 ing is as follows : ascending high up the blades of the grass, it eats out a 



