Beautiful Butterflies. 117 



LARGE COPPER. 



PLATE VIIT. FIG. II. 



\APILIO, or Lyceena dispar. There are five 

 species of Copper Butterflies, so called from 

 the brilliant coppery hue of the wings, known 

 in Britain, but only two that can be called at all com- 

 mon; indeed, perhaps only one, for the above-named 

 species, since the draining and cultivation of the fenny 

 districts of Cambridge and Huntingdonshire, Norfolk 

 and Suffolk, its favourite places of resort, has in a great 

 measure disappeared. 



This fly, the largest of its genus, is remarkable for 

 the flashing appearance of its burnished wings, which 

 measure about an inch and a half across ; it flits about 

 among the reeds of the fens and marshes, and sports 

 amidst the rank vegetation of the moist waste lands 

 like a gleam of red fire ; when at rest it presents a very 

 different aspect, pale orange and blue ashy grey being 

 the colour of the under sides of the wings ; these are 

 diversified with spots of black, encircled with yellow 

 rings and veins, and crescent-shaped marks of the same 

 dark colour. In this fly, as in many other members of 



