ai3 



large and fine.— Rev. L. Jenyus, Old Sarum, Wilts., 1826.— J. C. Dale." 



The Rev. F. G. Morris, in his " History of British Butterflies/' 1853, 

 writes, " This species is plentiful near Newmarket, and at Gogmagog Park, 

 near Cambridge ; Mr. Dale records the neighbourhood of Hull as another 

 locality for it; Barnwell and Ashton Wild, and the neighbourhood of Pole- 

 brook, Northamptonshire ; near Dover, Kent ; Old Sarum, Wiltshire ; Croy- 

 don, Surrey ; Lewes and Brighton, Sussex, are also its habitats, and Blan- 

 ford also. 



HESPERLY SYLYANUS. 

 Large Skipper. 



Sylvanus, Fab. Sylva'nus, God of the winds, Yirg. Georg. 



The wings on the upperside are of a rich brown, blotched and spotted 

 with fulvous : on the underside of a greenish brown, indistinctly spotted. 

 The male has a black streak on the fore-wings. The width across the wings 

 varies from an inch and two lines to an inch and four lines. 



This butterfly varies a little in hue, and in the extent or clearness of the 

 paler markings, but is still very constant to the type. A fine variety is 

 figured in Mosley's " Illustrations." It has the wings of an orange yellow, 

 paler towards the hind-margin, which is dark brown ; there is also a dark 

 brown spot on the costa, near the tip. 



The egg at first is of a dull white, being afterwards tinged with yellow, 

 and is of a globular shape, with the base flattened : the shell is dull and 

 finely granulated, and covered all over with extremely faint blunt hexagonal 

 reticulation, with fine reticulation just on the top. 



The caterpillar, when young, is of a pale yellowish colour, with black dots 

 set with exceedingly short bristles, and a large smooth brilliant jet black 

 head. At the end of three weeks or so, the colour changes to a dull green, 

 and it spins together the edges of the grass blades, and makes an opaque 

 web, not much bigger than itself for a hiding place. After hybernation in 

 May, the colour is a pale green, the skin being thickly covered with very 

 fine short dark brown bristles, the head of a dirty white, with dark brown 

 stripe. It is of a cylindrical shape, and feeds on various grasses (Holcus 

 lanatus, Luzula pilosa, &c.) 



The chrysalis is of a chocolate brown colour, slender in shape, and is en- 

 closed in a folded blade of grass. The butterfly appears on the wing in the 

 end of May and June, and also in July and the beginning of August. 



Hesperia sylvanus is found all over Kurope, except the extreme north, and 

 in Northern and Western' Asia. It is widely distributed and common in 



