152 THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



occurring in England : these are Chrysophanus hippo thoe 

 and C. virgattrece, both of which have even had English 

 names bestowed upon them, to wit, the Purple-edged Copper 

 and the Scarce Copper ; C. gordius, and C. circe (dorilis). 

 These are only mentioned to afford an opportunity for saying 

 that there does not appear to be the least reason for con- 

 sidering either of them to be a British butterfly. Kirby, 

 Barrett, and others, however, think it possible that the first 

 two may have inhabited England in ancient times. 



The Small Copper (Chrysophanus phlceas). 



This little butterfly is very smart, in activity as well as 

 appearance. In colour it is very similar to the last species, 

 but both sexes are spotted with black on the fore wings, the 

 outer series of six spots forming a very irregular row ; the hind 

 wings are black, with a wavy orange-red band on the outer 

 margin. 



There is considerable variation, and it is, therefore, deemed 

 advisable to give a number of figures representing some of the 

 more striking aberrations. The three figures at the top of 

 Plate 10 1 depict the normal male and female ; the latter sex is 

 Fig. 3. For the loan of the other specimens (Figs. 4-12) my 

 thanks are due to Mr. E. Sabine, who has a very fine and 

 extensive series of varieties of this butterfly. Other examples of 

 aberration on the under side are shown on Plate 119. Blue 

 s pots _ are sometimes found on the hind wings ; these are pla ced 

 near the orange-red band, and occasionally they attain a go od 

 size;. Specimens much suffused with blackish sometimes occur ; 

 these are referable to var. eleus^ which is the usual summer 

 form in some of the warmer countries abroad. A very rare 

 form is that known as schmidtii (Fig. 7), in which the ground 

 colour of the fore wings and the band on the hind wings are 

 silvery white instead of orange or coppery-red. A modification 



