1 88 THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



dark head of the caterpillar showing through. The young 

 caterpillar eats part of the empty egg-shell." 



The full-grown caterpillar is of a delicate light green, the 

 stripe along the back is rather bluish-green, with paler green 

 central and side lines ; the spiracles are flesh-coloured, and 

 below these there is a somewhat creamy-white stripe. The 

 head is deeper green than the body, and roughened with 

 minute points. It feeds in June on Holcus lanatus, Br achy - 

 podium sylvaticurn, and probably other kinds of soft grasses, 

 and its assimilation, both in colour and texture, with the blades 

 of grass is remarkable. Before changing to the chrysalis it 

 encloses itself within two or sometimes three leaves of the grass, 

 joined together longitudinally by lacing or spinning with white 

 silk, the edges more or less close to each other, and becomes 

 completely hidden. 



The chrysalis is secured in the silken chamber, head upward, 

 by an oblique cincture behind the thorax, and the anal tip 

 fastened by a fan-like spread of fine hooks at the extremity 

 fixed in the silk. The colour is similar to that of the caterpillar, 

 and the lines are fairly in evidence. Caterpillars that spun up 

 on June 18 to 23 produced butterflies on July 15 and 16. 



Hellins states that eggs were laid in a row in a folded blade 

 of grass about July 29, and that the caterpillars hatched out 

 on August 12. 



According to Hawes, the caterpillar of this species does not 

 hatch from the egg until the following spring. 



Although it does not seem to be very plentiful in fenlands, 

 this butterfly certainly has a partiality for damp places, whether 

 in the rides, or on the sides of woods, on hill slopes, or waste 

 ground. Wherever there is a fairly large growth of the taller 

 soft grasses that the caterpillars feed upon, there the butterfly 

 may be found in July nnd August throughout the greater part 

 of England and Wales. Reported from the Edinburgh district 

 in Scotland ; and in Ireland from Powerscourt and near Cork. 



