356 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



deen : Pitcaple (Eeid). Berks: Streatley, Henwood (Vict. Count. Hist.). 

 Cumberland : near Carlisle (F. H. Day). Derby: Derby (Hill). Essex: on the coast,. 

 St. Osyth (Harwood). Gloucester: Bristol (Allis). Hants: Bingwood (Fowler), 

 Winchester (Tomlin), Portsmouth dist., Highgrove (King), Isle of Wight (Sequeira) 

 — Shanklin (Leech). Hereford: Hereford (Blathvvayt). Herts: Watford (Arkle). 

 Kent : Blackheath (Green), Plumstead Common (Dawson), Dartford Heath (Youens), 

 Folkestone (Giles), Erith (Sabine), Beckenham (Buckstone), Birch Wood (Stephens). 

 Lancs: Oldham (Edleston). Northumberland: Newcastle (Kosie). Notts: Sherwood 

 Forest (Birchall). Oxford: Oxford (Holland). Perthshire (Carrington). Renfrew: 

 Paisley (Stewart). Stafford: BarlastonDown(Frohawk). Surrey: Croydon (Long), 

 West Norwood (Harley-Mason). Suffolk : Near Ipswich (Stephens). Stoke-by- 

 Nayland (Mathew). Sussex: Tilgate Forest (Tugwell). Tyrone: Favour Boyal 

 (Kane). Yorks : New by (Leighton), Strensall Common, Sandburn, Thirsk 

 (Walker), near Huddersfield (Porritt), Doncaster (Clark). Continental distri- 

 bution. — France : Fontainebleau(Kane), I\Iaine-et-Loire — St. Christophe-du-Bois 

 (Delahaye), Digne (Oberthiir). Germany: Prussia, near Wargen (Macy), War- 

 nicken (Draudt), both of these in August (Speiser), Boberg, near Hamburg, in July 

 (Tessien), near Parchim, end of July, 1877 (Gillmer), a ? on the Hulserberg r 

 near Krefeld, in August, 1895 (Bothke), near Wiesbaden (Blum), on the field-path 

 between Niederkaufungen to the Stiftswald, in July (Borgmann), occurs rarely 

 among the typical forms in Thuringia (Krieghoff), two near Gotha (Knapp), one 

 near Wahren, and one in the Hohburger Schweiz (Verein Fauna, Leipzig); several 

 times captured near Weinheim (Meess and Spuler), Eutin (Gerhard). Italy: near 

 Florence, prov. Lucca — Viareggio (Verity). Netherlands (Snellen). Switzer- 

 land: Martigny (Sloper). 



Esper, who first figured this form, calls it " Plebeius Ruralis phlaeas 

 var.," and says that his "fig. 5 shows that the copper colour of phlaeas 

 may change into white ; the upperside is as fresh in colour as in the 

 ordinary form, but the ground colour is white ; on the pale-coloured 

 underside, however, one observes the almost obsolete pale red-yellow 

 marginal band ; the specimen figured was taken in a meadow near 

 Neustadt-on-the-Aisch, and is in Gerning's collection." Esper's figure 

 (pi. lx., contd. x., fig. 5) is excellent ; the usual dark part and spots of 

 inky blackness ; the ground colour of the wings pure white ; the 

 underside of the forewings also shows the white ground colour, with 

 black spots and grey margin. The hindwings rather brownish-grey, 

 strongly sprinkled with tiny black dots, and showing a row of yellow 

 marginal lunules edging a series of black lineations. This is the var. n 

 of Stephens, who describes it as having " the disc of the wings pure 

 white, but the spots and borders as in the type." Oberthiir figures 

 two $ s (Etudes, etc., 1896, figs. 70-71), one taken in England, the 

 other at Digne, and also notes (op. cit., p. 12) a $ from Tilgate 

 (Tugwell collection). Lang describes it as the form in which " all 

 those portions of the wing that are normally copper-coloured, are 

 brilliant shining white," his figure being taken from a specimen 

 captured in Perthshire. He further adds that "it is found most 

 commonly in the southern districts of the territory inhabited 

 by pldaeas, but it occasionally occurs in the more northern 

 parts." The records seem to show it to be commonest in the 

 more central parts of its area in Europe. Many examples have 

 been taken in the British Islands, and the dates of capture show 

 that they are not confined to a particular brood, although taken more 

 frequently in the autumn, e.g., a specimen May 19th, 1868, at 

 Doncaster, the part usually of a bright copper colour being of a 

 splendid silvery- white ; it is also a very large example (Clark) ; one 

 with the copper colour superseded by silvery-white, at Shanklin, in 

 October, 1880 (Leech) ; a beautiful silvery-white aberration at 



