260 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



PHLCEAS, Linn. PI. 20, fig. 2. 



The. Small Copper. 



" Phlceas, 2, Phlaeas, a surname of Venus, 

 perhaps connected with Latin flos, Enlish 

 bloom." A.L. 



ImagO — Plate 20, fig 2. Bright coppery 

 red, with numerous nearly square black 

 spots, costa and hind margin bordered with 

 blackish. Hind wing blackish bronze with 

 a bright coppery coppery red band before 

 the hind margin. 



Larva. — Onisciform, green, a deep red 

 dorsal stripe and a pale red mark along the 

 side where it projects over the legs. Some- 

 times it is paler and without the red 

 markings. 



Pupa.— Short and stumpy, rather flatter 

 on the under side; in colour, dull brown 

 with darker markings. 



Food Plants. — Various species of 

 Dock (Rumex). 



Time of Appearance—There appear 



to be three broods of this beautiful little 

 butterfly each year. It appears first on the 

 wing in April or May, the eggs then de- 

 posited hatch in about ten days, and the 

 larva feeds up in about three weeks ; it 

 remains ten or twelve days in pupa, and 

 the butterfly is on the wing again by the 

 end of June. The same relative periods 

 may be taken with the second brood, 

 andthe imago may be found in September 

 and October. The larva? from these butter- 

 flies hybernate very small, reappearing 

 early in the year. Though the dates 

 given are those at which a greater 



number of specimens may be found than at 

 any other period, there appear always to be 

 a few that either do not feed up so rapidly 

 or are delayed from some other cause, and 

 odd specimens are often found at intermedi 

 ate dates. 



Habitat. — An abundant butterfly in 

 most of places all over Britain. It is very 

 common in lanes, railway embankments, and 

 j waste places. It is widely distributed all 

 over Europe and Asia, and is also found in 

 North America, one form of it extending as 

 far as California, and I have a poor speci- 

 men from Venezuela, given me by Mr. Har 

 wood, of Colchester. This is a more South- 

 erly locality for the species than has yet 

 been recorded in America. A variety of it 

 is also found in Abyssinia. 



Variation. — This is one of our mosl 

 variable species, and the different forms il 

 assumes are most protean. The ground 

 colour varies from the bright copper of the 

 type through paler yellow to perfectly pure 

 silvery white, which is called Schmidtii, Gerh 

 In the other direction it varies by the fore 

 wing being suffused with dark scales untr 

 they nearly resemble the hind wings, I have 

 one from Sherwood Forest with very little 

 of the coppery red remaining ; another witt 

 still less is in the collection of Mr. Stevens 

 and another given me by Mr. G. F. Mather 

 and taken by him on the island of Pacha 

 limon, in the Sea of Marmora, which onl] 

 shows it in certain lights like the blue o 

 A . Iris. This also has short tails to the him 

 wing, and is the variety Timeus, Cram 

 (called Eleus, Fab., by Staudinger), whic 

 is found in that part of the world. Beside 

 these changes in the ground colour, th 

 spots vary in number and size, being ver] 

 few and small in a specimen of Mr. Howarc 

 Vaughan's, and forming a broad band in 



