88 
INSECTS : 
butterflies, many of which will be familar to most readers forming the subfamily 
Satyrince. They include the ringlets ( Erebia ), speckled-woods {Pararge), marbled 
whites (Melanargia), meadow-browns and heaths {Epinephele and Camonympha), 
wall-browns ( Satyrus ), graylings and common wood-ringlet ( Hipparchia ), and many 
others. The caterpillars are mostly smooth, fusiform, and green, having two 
horns on the head and a bifurcate tail. They feed on grasses. These butterflies fly 
somewhat feebly over meadows, downs, highlands, and heath districts. As an 
example of the typical genus Satyrus may be taken the common British wall-brown 
(S. megcera). Here the wings are rufous 
brown, spotted, speckled, and streaked 
with black, having also a single eye-like 
spot on the upper-wing at the tip, and 
three on each lower - wing, near the 
margin. As a rarity, collectors prize a 
specimen in which the fore-wing spots 
are bipupilled, or having twin pale 
centres. Of the graylings {Hipparchia), 
the British H. semele is abundant in 
the heath and mountainous districts of 
England. Owing to its beautifully 
grey-mottled under-side, it is absolutely 
invisible when settled upon rocks or 
amongst the grey stones of the moorlands. The nearly allied meadow-browns 
and heaths ( Epinephele ), which do not present a very great number of species, 
are most abundant in the Mediterranean region and Western Asia. They fall 
into two groups, of which E. jctnira is a good example of the one, while E. 
titlionus, the large heath or gatekeeper, illustrates the other. The former, which 
is the commonest of British butterflies, abounds in fields and meadows in the 
summer, ceasing to fly the moment the sunbeams are obscured by a passing- 
cloud. Specimens with pale patches on the wings are valued by lovers of varieties. 
The upper figures on p. 86 represent the adult and caterpillar. 
Family Eeycinidas. 
This small family, of which the characters are given on p. 86, includes species 
chiefly found in the tropics. Erycina auiestes of Brazil is peculiar in having the 
mid-wings produced into a tail-like projection. As an example of the family we 
may take the Duke of Burgundy butterfly ( Nemeobius lucina), an illustration of 
which is given in the coloured Plate, No. 2 from the lower right corner. Its 
brown, yellow-spangled wings once earned for it a place amongst the fritillaries. 
It is, however, the sole British representative of a family whose members are so 
abundant in Brazil. 
The Blues and Coppers, —Family Lycjenid^E. 
This large family, represented by many small brightly-coloured insects, 
includes the blues, coppers, hairstreaks, and many others. Of the hairstreaks 
wall-brow (nat. size). 
