150 THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



so, gliding with a slug-like motion, the legs and claspers being 

 entirely concealed. The head is extremely small, and can be 

 completely withdrawn into the second segment : the body has 

 the dorsal surface convex, the ventral surface flat ; the divisions 

 of the segments are distinctly marked, the posterior margin of 

 each slightly overlapping the anterior margin of the next, and 

 the entire caterpillar having very much the appearance of a 

 Chiton j the sides are slightly dilated, the legs and claspers are 

 seated in closely approximate pairs, nearly on a medio-ventral 

 line. The colour is green, scarcely distinguishable from that 

 of the dock-leaf; there is an obscure medio-dorsal stripe, 

 slightly darker than the disk, and in all probability due to the 

 presence of food in the alimentary canal. The chrysalis is 

 obese, blunt at both extremities, attached by minute hooks at 

 the caudal extremities, and also by a belt round the waist." 

 Newman adds, " My acquaintance with the caterpillar and 

 chrysalis was made very many years ago in Mr. Doubleday's 

 garden at Epping, where the very plant of Rumex hydrolapa- 

 thum, on which the caterpillars fed, is still in existence." 



The caterpillar was described by Stephens, in 1828, as some- 

 what hairy, bright green, with innumerable white dots. The 

 same author states that the chrysalis was " first green, then pale 

 ash-coloured, with a dark dorsal line and two abbreviated 

 white ones on each side, and, lastly, sometimes deep brown." 



The figure of the caterpillar on Plate 98 is after Westwood, 

 and that of the chrysalis after Newman (" Grammar of Ento- 

 mology "). 



Although he refers to it as " hippo thoe? the Large Copper 

 seems to have been known to Lewin (1795), as ne states that 

 specimens had been taken in Huntingdonshire. Haworth 

 (1803) mentions its occurrence in the fens of Cambridgeshire, 

 and Stephens, twenty-five years later, wrote : — " This splendid 

 insect appears to be confined to the fenny counties of Cambridge 

 and Huntingdon, with the neighbouring ones of Suffolk and 



