85 



The caterpillar is variable in colour, the most ordinary one being buff with 

 darker dorsal and lateral streaks. Another is of a yellowish green, with red 

 dorsal and lateral lines. It feeds on Phleum pratense, Dactylis glomerata, 

 and other grasses ; it hibernates when very small, becomes full-fed in June, 

 and changes to a chrysalis without suspending itself in anyway, or making a 

 cocoon. 



The chrysalis is very stout and plump, and of a pale, putty white colour, 

 with a broadish yellow stripe down the middle, and the wing cases are freck- 

 led with pale brown. 



M. Galathea is one of the most abundant butterflies in central and south- 

 ern Europe (but does not occur in Spain or Portugal, Scandinavia, or the 

 north of Russia), frequenting meadows and open places in woods, during the 

 months of July and August. 



In the British Isles, it is entirely confined to England, and does not occur 

 at all in the more northerly counties, Yorkshire being the furthest north in 

 which it is found. In the midland and more southern counties it is common 

 enough where it occurs, but this is always very restricted. It has apparently 

 a great partiality for the chalk downs of the south coast ; roughish ground 

 and broken pastures being also favourite habitats. 



The first to record it as a British species appears to have been Dr. Chris- 

 topher Merratt, E.R.S., for in his "Pinax rerum Naturalim Britannicaeum, 

 continens vegitabilia, Animalia, et Possilia, in hac Insula reperta inchoatus," 

 he gives the following description of a butterfly : " Capite alisq, lacteis quibus 

 maculae f ureas et nigricantes." 



In his "Historia Insectorum," published in 1710, John Ray thus records 

 it: " Mense Junio circa Festum S. Joannis Baptistse primo circumvolitantem 

 observari hoc anno (1690) in locis palustribus et humidis prsecipue. Yerum 

 ver valde frigidum erat. Hanc speciem D. Petiver in Mus. cent. 1. Papi- 

 lionem leucomelanon appellat, Angl. Our Half- mourner. Apud nos circa 

 Braintriam in Essexia frequentissima, nec rarior, ut puto, alibi in Anglia." 



In his "Insects of Great Britain" in 1795, Lewin writes: "This butter- 

 fly is to be met with in dry meadows or pasture lands. It does not range 

 abroad, but is locally attached to the place where it was bred, so that it was 

 common to see fifty, sixty, or a hundred on the wing in one meadow, and in 

 the fields adjoining not one. It lays its eggs, scattering them about the 

 meadows, and as the eggs are not glutinous, they drop among the grass, and 

 rest in security, till the proper time for the caterpillars to make their appear- 

 ance. The caterpillars are bred from the egg the latter end of July, and feed 

 on meadow grass the remaining part of the summer. On the approach of 

 winter they conceal themselves in the ground, and abstain from food till the 



