428 



BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



off its legs. It may be urged that this is derogatory to science, and 

 that we should not descend to these particulars. We can but reply 

 that this is the only method left now by which one can collect British 

 C. dispar. 



Variation. — The Doubleday collection contains 15 British-captured 

 $ s and 13 $ s of this species. In size there is very little difference in 

 the sexes, the variation in both running from about 33mm. to 47mm., 

 but no chance of exact measurement exists. In colour, one of the $ s 

 is rather more orange-yellow than the rest. All have a well-developed 

 discoidal spot on the forewing, and all but one show some trace of 

 a second spot between the discoidal spot and , wing-base. In some 

 this spot is very faint, in others very well developed. Among the 

 13 ?s there is distinctly more variation, e.g., there is considerable 

 difference in the size of the spots forming the submarginal row 

 crossing the forewings, some being quite twice as long as the 

 others, whilst, in all, the tendency is to elongation in a longitudinal 

 direction. Three examples have two spots between the discoidal and 

 the base, one other has an exceptionally large discoidal spot, whilst the 

 two spots between this and the base are united into a long, somewhat wedge- 

 shaped, streak, filling up the greater part of the discoidal cell, and with 

 the point towards the base ( = ab. cuneigera). The hindwingsof the 2 s 

 vary greatly. The most marked form is that in which the basal and cen- 

 tral areas of the hind wings are entirely black, except for the fine coppery- 

 red nervures which run up from the outer marginal coppery-red band 

 towards the base ; this black area includes the black spots which are 

 not distinguishable therefrom. Others have the basal and central areas 

 (particularly the latter) distinctly paler, the tint being rather of a brown 

 than blackish, tinged with coppery, the two transverse rows of spots 

 black, each spot united with its fellow between the same pair of nervures, 

 into longitudinal streaks. In some others the basal area is quite golden, 

 i.e., the golden gloss overlies a somewhat brown ground colour, the 

 spots black and distinctly forming two rows ; lastly, some have the 

 whole central and basal areas golden-brown w T ith no distinct line of 

 demarcation between the colour of the outer coppery-red band and 

 central and basal areas ; the spots forming the two transverse 

 rows in these specimens are usually very small, and one 2 bas 

 only the inner row of spots. When these black spots fail, it is 

 usually the outer row that tends to disappear first. The undersides 

 of two examples have the hindwings of a delicate pale grey-blue, the 

 black spots on the fore- and hindwings being surrounded with white. 

 Dale writes (Ent., xxvii., p. 60): "There is considerable difference 

 in size, the smallest in my collection measuring 1 in. 5 lin. across the 

 wings and the largest 2 ins. 2 lin. It also varies in outline, and, of two 

 $ s taken at Trundle Mere, in Hunts, the forewings of one are long 

 and acute and of the other short and obtuse, but they do not differ in 

 any other respect. The $ is of an effulgent coppery colour, with a 

 larger and a smaller black spot on the forewings; in the var. rutilus the 

 second spot is absent"; this variety has been occasionally taken in 

 England in company with the type, and Haworth recorded it under the 

 name hippothoe. There is considerably more variation in the 2 • This 

 sex has two larger black spots above the centre of each forewing, and a 



* This is not necessarily so (see poxtea , p. 430). 



