THE SMALL COPPER. 1 53 



of this form which is hardly less rare has a creamy tint. Straw- 

 coloured or pale golden specimens are rather more frequently 

 met with. The colour of the hind wings in fresh specimens is 

 sometimes steely-grey, but blackish is the more usual hue ; the 

 band on the outer area, which as a rule agrees in colour with 

 the fore wings, varies in width a good deal, and occasionally is 

 more or less obscured by the blackish ground colour. The 

 arrangement, size, and shape of the black spots, both above 

 and below, are subject to much vagary, sometimes of a very 

 striking kind, as, for example, when the spots of the outer series 

 on the fore wings are united with the discal pair and form a large 

 irregular blotch. A remarkable specimen taken some years 

 ago in the Isle of Wight had a small patch of copper with a 

 black spot in it on the under side. This gave one the idea of a 

 clumsy attempt at patching, but as I happened to take that 

 particular specimen, I know that it had not been tampered with. 

 Gynandrous specimens of this butterfly sometimes occur, but 

 these are very rare. 



The egg is of a yellowish- white colour at first, and afterwards 

 becomes greyish ; the pattern on the shell, which resembles 

 network, is always whiter. 



The caterpillar is green and similar in tint to the leaf of 

 dock or sorrel upon which it feeds. It is clothed with short 

 greyish hair which arises from white dots ; the dorsal line is 

 brownish-olive, and the ring divisions, especially along the back, 

 are well defined. Head very small, pale brownish, marked 

 with blackish, drawn into the first ring of the body when 

 resting. The legs and prolegs are tinged with pink, and some- 

 times the body is marked with pink. 



The chrysalis is pale brown, sometimes tinged with greenish, 

 and freckled with darker brown ; there is a dark line along the 

 middle of the thorax and body, the wing cases are streaked with 

 blackish, and the body is dotted with black. Attached by the 

 tail and loose silken threads around the body to a leaf or stem. 



