THE ESSEX SKIPPER. 1 89 



The Essex Skipper (Adopcza lineola). 



This butterfly is very like the Small Skipper, but may be 

 separated from it, in both ssxes, by the black under sides of the 

 knobs of the antennas. The black, sexual mark in the male is 

 finer, shorter, and much less oblique (Plate 125), 



The egg (Plate 124) is pale greenish-yellow, oval in shape, 

 flattened above and below ; the top is slightly depressed. The 

 eggs are deposited in July or August, in dried grass seed-heads 

 and inside the sheath of a leaf, and the caterpillars, according to 

 Hawes, do not hatch until April. 



The caterpillar is green, with the incisions between the rings 

 yellowish ; there is a darker green stripe on the back, and the 

 lines on the sides are yellow. The head is pale brown and 

 striped with darker brown. It feeds from April to June on 

 coarse grasses, such as Triticum repens. When full grown " it 

 spins together the stems of the grass low down, with a network 

 of white silk for pupation " (Hawes). The chrysalis is described 

 as being long, yellowish-green in colour, and retaining the dark 

 dorsal stripe seen in the caterpillar. 



No doubt this butterfly has been with us all the time, but it 

 appears to have escaped detection until the year 1888, when 

 Mr. Hawes, in July of that year, met with it in Essex. He, 

 however, did not then consider the three specimens that he 

 had taken with A . thaumas anything more than queer varieties 

 of that species, and it was not until January, 1890, that the fact 

 of A. lineola being British was published. Since that time 

 this Skipper has been found in a great many parts of Essex, 

 but chiefly along the coast, and in such localities as Ben- 

 fleet, Canvey, Dovercourt, Shoeburyness, Southend, etc. At 

 Hadleigh it is often very abundant. Other localities are 

 Sheerness, Cliffe, and Gravesend, in Kent. It has also been 

 reported from near Sudbury, and from Harwich, and Chappel 



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