186 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



(Butler) ; August 2nd, 1897, at Shere near Dorking (Tremayne) ; 

 August 2nd, 1897, at Reading (Butler); not common, and late, August 

 5th, 1897, in the Guildford district (Grover) ; common, first week in 

 August, 1897, on the Berkshire downs (Clarke) ; August 1st, 1898, at 

 Reading (Butler) ; July 29th, 1899, at Betchworth (James) ; August 

 3rd, 1899, in the neighbourhood of Kimble (Rowland-Brown) ; August 

 7th, 1899, rather worn, at Reading (Butler) ; August 14th, 1899, 

 somewhat worn in the Gloucester district (Davis) ; between July 26th 

 and September 10th, 1900, at Burgess Hill (Dollman) ; August 11th- 

 27th, 1900, at Folkestone (Pickett); July 31st, 1901, at Reading 

 (Butler); August 3rd-September 7th, 1901, at 'Burgess Hill (Dollman); 

 August 3rd, 1901, at Aldbury Down (Barraud) ; August 23rd, 1901, 

 August 27th, 1902, at Cuxton (Burrows) ; August 4th, 1902, in the 

 Reading district (Butler) ; August 5th-27th, 1902, at Burgess Hill 

 (Dollman) ; August 9th, 1902, at Aldbury Down (Barraud) ; August 

 8th, 1903, at Dover (Pickett) ; July 27th-30th, 1904, on Ranmore 

 Common (Oldaker) ; August 1st, 1904, at Aldbury Down (Barraud); 

 August 10th, 29th, 1904, at Cuxton (Burrows) ; August 14th, 1905, 

 just out in the Gloucester district (Davis). 



Habits. — The rapidity of the flight of U. comma is sufficiently 

 remarkable ; it skips rather than flies from flower to flower with 

 surprising speed and agility, rarely resting on leaves, drawing up its 

 wings rapidly and then darting off with the utmost despatch. Some- 

 times it chooses the ground on which to rest, and is then difficult to 

 see, whilst it is, with Hesperia alveus, Polyommatus dam on, P. corydon, 

 etc., attracted to the wayside runnels in the Alps, drinking there, or at 

 the muddy patches, with such evident gusto and forgetfulness that it 

 then becomes an easy prey. It was in particular abundance at the 

 dirty puddles and around the springs at Evolene in August, 1899, and 

 at Simplon the same year, revelling in the hot steam rising from such 

 places, and from any damp bank that faced the midday sun. At 

 Cuxton, it particularly loves to sun itself on the capitula of a bright red 

 dwarf thistle that is abundant there. The imaginal habit is to come to 

 rest suddenly on a flower with its wings over its back, and it will keep 

 this position sometimes for a considerable time. On the other hand, 

 it will occasionally drop its wings almost at once, edging round so 

 that the sun falls fully on its back, exposing its forewings to the sun. 

 It usually, however, only depresses its forewings at first very little, 

 and drops the hindwings but a little below them, in no wise approach- 

 ing the horizontal, but, after a time, it drops the forewings to a 

 considerable distance, at the same time lowering the hindwings still 

 more, until they are nearly as horizontal as in the Thymelicids, and 

 lower than we have ever noticed them in Augiades sylvanus. If 

 disturbed, it suddenly raises its wings and darts off, sometimes to a 

 considerable distance, usually taking up its position on a flower, of 

 which, those of various species of thistles (Cardials), Centaurea, 

 Hieracia, etc., are the most frequently chosen. Constant notes that it 

 affects flowers of buckwheat around Autun. The males are pugnacious, 

 attacking not only other individuals of their own species, but also driving 

 off any other species that dares to approach too closely to its own chosen 

 flower, to which it will sometimes return again and again if not dis- 

 turbed by the observer. When asleep, the wings are drawn right up 

 over the back, and there is no trace of a horizontal position being taken 



