POLYOMMATrS. 
91 
Habitat. ? 
This insect, known in England as “the large copper,” once 
inhabited the fen-districts of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, 
but it has not been seen for many years, the last capture having 
been made in 1848; we are therefore forced to conclude that it is 
extinct in England. As regards its further habitat, I cannot find 
any certain account of its ever having been taken anywhere but in 
Britain, though there have been rumours of its occurrence in the 
Pontine marshes, near Rome ; also in Egypt. 
All the continental specimens of Dispar I have seen belong to 
the variety Butilus, to be described presently, and are so distinct 
that there ought not to be any confusion between them and the 
true typical form once taken in England. 
Laeva. — Green in colour, with a darker dorsal stripe. Its 
food-plant was the great water dock (Piumex liydrolapathuvi), upon 
which the eggs were laid in August, the larva hybernating and 
becoming full-fed in the June following. 
VARIETY. 
Rutilus, Wernb. Btr. i. p. 394. — Hippothoe, Hub. 352-4; 
0. I. 2, 83. This is smaller and less brightly coloured than 
Dispar, the spots on the under side are much smaller, and the 
colour of the under side is ashy grey, with very little tinge of blue. 
The most distinctive feature, however, is the narrowness of the 
orange band on the under side of the hind wings, near the hind 
margin. I have examined a great number of specimens of Rutilus, 
and also of Dispar, with the object of fixing upon some constant 
character by which they may be differentiated, and have never seen 
a specimen of Rutilus with the hind-marginal band so broad and so 
well defined as it always appears in Dispar. I am therefore inclined 
to look upon this character as diagnostic.* 
Times of Appearance. — July and August. 
Habitat. — This form of the species is distributed throughout 
France, Germany, and the South-East of Europe. It also inhabits 
Asia Minor, Armenia, and the Altai, inhabiting moist meadows. 
In France and Germany it is very local, but commoner in the more 
eastern parts of its range. 
* I am indebted to Mr. Howard Vaughan for first suggesting to me this 
method of distinction. 
