88 



INSECTS. 



butterflies, many of which will be familar to most readers forming the subfamily 

 Satyr luce. They include the ringlets (Erebia), speckled-woods (Pararge), marbled 

 whites (Melanargia), meadow-browns and heaths (Epinephele and Ccenonympha), 

 wall-browns (Satyrus), graylings and common wood-ringlet (Hipparchia), and many 

 others. The caterpillars are mostly smooth, fusiform, and green, having two 

 horns on the head and a bifurcate tail. They feed on grasses. These butterflies fly 

 somewhat feebly over meadows, downs, highlands, and heath districts. As an 

 example of the typical genus Satyrus may be taken the common British wall-brown 



(S. megcera). Here the wings are rufous 

 brown, spotted, speckled, and streaked 

 with black, having also a single eye-like 

 spot on the upper-wing at the tip, and 

 three on each lower - wing, near the 

 margin. As a rarity, collectors prize a 

 specimen in which the fore-wing spots 

 are bipupilled, or having twin pale 

 centres. Of the graylings {Hipparchia), 

 the British H. semele is abundant in 

 the heath and mountainous districts of 

 England. Owing to its beautifully 

 grey-mottled under-side, it is absolutely 

 invisible when settled upon rocks or 

 amongst the grey stones of the moorlands. The nearly allied meadow -browns 

 and heaths (Epinephele), which do not present a very great number of species, 

 are most abundant in the Mediterranean region and Western Asia. They fall 

 into two groups, of which E. janira is a good example of the one, while E. 

 tithonus, the large heath or gatekeeper, illustrates the other. The former, which 

 is the commonest of British butterflies, abounds in fields and meadows in the 

 summer, ceasing to fly the moment the sunbeams are obscured by a passing 

 cloud. Specimens with pale patches on the wings are valued by lovers of varieties. 

 The upper figures on p. 86 represent the adult and caterpillar. 



wall-bkow^ (nat. size). 



Family ERYCINID^. 



This small family, of which the characters are given on p. 80, includes species 

 chiefly found in the tropics. Erycina aulestes of Brazil is peculiar in having the 

 mid-wings produced into a tail-like projection. As an example of the family we 

 may take the Duke of Burgundy butterfly (Nemeobius lucina), an illustration of 

 which is given in the coloured Plate, No. 2 from the lower right corner. Its 

 brown, yellow-spangled wings once earned for it a place amongst the fritillaries. 

 It is, however, the sole British representative of a family whose members are so 

 abundant in Brazil. 



The Blues axd Coppers, — Family Lvc^ekid^e. 



This large family, represented by many small brightly -coloured insects, 

 includes the blues, coppers, hairstreaks, and many others. Of the hairstreaks 



