366 
HESPERIIDAE 
orange-fulvous and olive-ochreous ; there is a dusky patch 
near the base of the fore wing. 
Life of Imago. The probable life of this little butterfly 
does not exceed twenty days. 
Aberration. Aberration in this species is rarely found. 
Occasionally specimens occur of a pale straw-yellow colour, 
and more rarely of a silvery-cream or almost white colouring 
(ab. pallida, n. ab.) A form suffused with dull olive-green (ex¬ 
cept for the central portion of the fore wing) and showing 
greenish on the under side occurs in the New Forest. 
Gynandrous examples are extremely rare. A specimen 
captured in Norfolk, August, 1896, had the right side male 
and left side female. 
Genus ADOPOEA, Billberg, 1820 
THE ESSEX SKIPPER 
Adopoca lineola (Ochs., 1808). 
(Plate XVII, facing page 196) 
This locally-abundant little butterfly was not known to be 
British previous to 1S89, when three specimens, which were 
caught by Mr. F. W. Hawes in Essex in 1888, were identified 
as A. lineola, instead of aberrations of the Small Skipper, 
for which they were taken. The capture of these specimens 
was recorded in The Entomologist, 1890, and the unexpected 
announcement led to the examination of specimens of sup¬ 
posed Small Skippers in various British collections. This 
resulted in a number of A. lineola being found, some having 
been captured in the middle of last century; the most 
ancient British examples are probably three (two males and 
one female) specimens in my cabinet, which were captured 
between 1820-30. These were formerly in a collection of 
British butterflies formed in Norfolk. 
