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19 



the 8th of October, 1833, the numbers of this butterfly, in the neighbourhood of 

 Tooting, surpassed every thing of the kind he ever witnessed. The Dahlia appear- 

 ing to be their favourite plant he was led to suspect that those insects must have 

 migrated from some other part of the country for provisions, up to that day he had not 

 seen a single specimen in the neighbourhood, and but a very few afterwards, and it 

 was evident that they must have been « winging their way" for some time, as most 

 of them were in a faded condition. The same circumstances are more strongly con- 

 firmed in a communication by Mr. E. Blyth to the Field Naturalist (vol. i. p. 470.), 

 who asserts that, " for a single day the species appeared every where in abundance' 

 and the day after not one was anywhere to be seen." It is evidently owing to this 

 migratory disposition that the species is so widely distributed, in respect to its 

 geographical range, being found in America, the two extremes of Africa and 

 in Java. 



H1PPARCHIA GALATHEA. THE MARMORESS (OR MARBLED WHITE) 



BUTTERFLY. 



Plate XL fig. 



-k. 



Synonyms. Papilio (Nymph. Gemm.) Galathea, Linn. Syst. Nat. ii. p. 772. Lewin Papil. pi. 28. 

 Donovan Brit. Ins, vol. 8. pi. 258. $ . Wilkes Eng. Moths & Butt. pi. 100. 

 Hipparchia Galathea, Leach, Stephens, Curtis. Duncan Brit. Butt. pi. 23. fig. ]. 

 Papilio Leucomelanos, Our Half-mourner, Petiv. Pap. pi. 2. f. 10. 



Upper Side. All the wings are white, beautifully checkered with angulated black spots. 

 In the fourth fan membrane, near the apex of the superior wing, is a circular spot or ring like 

 the eye of a bird, common to the genus. The eggs, which fall loose from the female among the 

 grass, are of a yellowish hue, when first laid ; but change presently after to a clear white. 



The caterpillar feeds on grass ; lives through the winter, and becomes full fed the beginning 

 of June, and appears as at (h) ; and the fly appears at the expiration of twenty days. The male 

 is seen at (£), shewing the upper side, and the female at (i) : she differs from the male in the 

 inferior wings ; the under sides of which are of a tawny or orange colour, as if scorched. 



Expansion of the wings 2 — 2i inches, 



This elegant butterfly is not uncommon in the woods, as well as in bogs and 

 moist glades, in various parts of the country. It is however exceedingly local and 

 by no means regular in its appearing, intervals of ten or twelve years having been 

 observed to occur when none would be found, and in the following season it 

 would be a prevailing species. (Journal of a Naturalist, p. 284.) There are a great 

 number of species, or at least reputed such, of these Leucomelaniens, as they have 

 been termed on the Continent; and some singular supposed varieties of this species 

 having been figured and described in English works (Steph. Illustr. Haust, 1. 

 p. 57. and Bree in Loudon s Mag. of Nat. Hist. v. 335.), it is not improbable that 

 we may in reality possess more than one of the species. 





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