CUPIDO MINIMUS. 129 



dashes; the nervures of the wings are well-shown by the spaces bet ween 

 them being filled up with dark grey ; the hairs are whitish, and the whole 

 surface is sprinkled with some minute black dots. [Described from a 

 fresh pupa, after the colours had settled, June 3rd, 1873.] (Hellins, 

 Ent. Mo. Mag., x., p. 43). The same pupa was then sent on to 

 Buckler, who described and figured it, just before the emergence of 

 the imago. His description reads: 3*5 lines in length, 1-5 lines in 

 diameter, moderately plump in appearance, the head and thorax well- 

 defined, the tip of the abdomen blunt and rounded. When viewed in 

 front, its general form is that of a narrow ellipse, but when seen side- 

 ways the prominent swelling of the thorax and the tip of the abdomen 

 bent under, with the long wing-cases, give the usual appearance of the 

 pupte of this group. The colour of the pupa is dirty whitish-grey, 

 approaching to drab, palest on the back of the abdomen, greyish on 

 the head and thorax, both of which are marked with a black dorsal 

 stripe, which is a little interrupted ; on either side is a subdorsal row 

 of short, slanting, black dashes. The pale ground-colour is sprinkled 

 with some very minute, black specks. The wing-nervures are well- 

 defined by the spaces between them being filled up with dark grey. 

 The head, thorax, and abdomen are hairy, with bristly whitish hairs, 

 of which there are none on the wing-, leg-, and antenna-cases. 

 [Described from the pupa noted above, some little time before emerg- 

 ence, which took place June 24th, 1872.] (Buckler, Larvae Brit. 

 Butts., i., pp. 103-104). Buckler's figures of the pupa (op. cit., pi. xiv., 

 figs. 2/*) are most unsatisfactory, possibly due to the reproduction. The 

 dorsal view gives no true ideas of the lateral flange formation, the 

 rounded (or domed) development of the thoracic segments, or even the 

 nature of the dark dorsal line, and subdorsal rows of spots. The 

 lateral view is equally unsatisfactory ; the thoracic dorsum being very 

 poorly developed, whilst the oblique markings on the wing are quite 

 unlike the real interneural lines (of which there are several) leading 

 from the base to the outer margin of the wing. Lastly, the dorsal 

 view of the pupa, and, more particularly, the lateral, give a panoply 

 of long setiferous hairs which stand out conspicuously, but Buckler's 

 figures show no sign of these hairs which are so characteristic, not 

 only of this, but of all Everid pupae (to which tribe Cupido minimus 

 belongs). 



Time of appearance. — The species appears to be essentially single- 

 brooded in Britain, appearing in late May and June, but with a 

 tendency for the earliest summer larvae to become " forwards," and 

 produce a small partial second-brood in August in specially fine 

 seasons. The same habit seems to prevail in the plains and hills of 

 central and southern Europe, but, in the higher altitudes and latitudes, 

 the species is absolutely single-brooded, and usually emerges in July 

 and August. There is, however, considerable difference in various 

 seasons, as to the emergence of the main brood, whilst, in some years, 

 the first brood continues throughout June, and even to early July. In 

 other years it is out in late May, over in early June, and the partial 

 second-brood is out before July is past. In the fine summer of 1887, 

 worn specimens were captured on the cliffs at the South Foreland as 

 late as July 11th, whilst, in the same place, between August 5th and 

 10th, of the same year, specimens of an undoubted partial second- 

 brood were more abundant than had ever previously been noted, yet 



