THE LARGE COPPER 
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brown with a broad coppery-orange sub-marginal band; 
from the upper edge the copper-orange extends in fine streaks 
up the nervures. 
On the under side the sexes are similar. 
The difference between the true British dispar and the 
Continental races is as follows : 
L. dispar ab. rutilus: The under side differs from dispar 
in having the fore wing paler orange ; the hind wing less blue ; 
the orange marginal band narrower, paler and not so squarely 
ended near the outer angle ; and the black spots usually much 
smaller. These differences apply to both sexes. 
L. dispar ab. batavns : This may be distinguished from 
dispar by certain small differences, chiefly these : the marginal 
copper-orange band is as a rule rather narrower and not so 
squarely ended in ab. batavus ; also the basal spots of the 
hind wing, as well as the last spot at the outer angle of the sub¬ 
marginal series, are smaller. The general appearance of both 
dispar and ab. batavus is very similar, but the above distinction 
will serve as a guide for distinguishing the two races ; while 
ab. rutilus is easily identified. 
Life of Imago. Owing to the fact that specimens of ab. 
rutilus lived in captivity for three weeks, the probable duration 
of life of L. dispar was about a month. 
Aberration. It is probable that aberration might have 
been frequent in this butterfly, as a few somewhat striking 
aberrations are existing, and it must be remembered that it 
is only in comparatively recent years that serious attention 
has been given to aberrant specimens of Lepidoptera. A 
century ago, aberrations were not sought after, and were 
discarded by many collectors, who looked upon them as not 
the right thing, therefore not fitted for their collections, which 
in those days consisted of very short series ; four or six 
specimens of each series sufficed. In the Doubleday collection 
in the British Museum, there is among the splendid series of 
bred specimens of L. dispar, a female aberration with a black 
wedge-shaped blotch at the base of the fore wings. In the 
Tring collection, is a perfect and symmetrically marked 
aberration of a male, with large whitish, wedge-shaped blotches 
running from the outer margins towards the base of the fore 
wings, and a sub-marginal row of whitish lunular markings 
