THE SILVER-SPOTTED SKIPPER 
375 
seasons. It is very regular in appearing on the wing and 
invariably appears at the end of the first week of August. Its 
average time is throughout that month. 
Hibernation. This species hibernates in the egg state, 
which lasts between seven and eight months. 
Egg and Egg Laying. On August 17th, 1900, I watched 
females of this little butterfly depositing over a patch of 
chalky ground with a dense, short growth of grasses, Wild 
Thyme, Rock-rose and other small plants. When searching 
for a suitable site for her eggs, she hovers over the surface 
with a buzzing flight and 
settles on a tuft of Fescue 
Grass, walks over and among 
it, then, curving her abdomen 
down, deposits a single egg on 
one of the fine, hair-like blades, 
flies off and repeats the 
process. 
Egg. The egg is very large 
for so small an insect. It 
measures 0*90 mm. in diam¬ 
eter at the base. In shape it 
exactly resembles an inverted 
pudding-basin ; the crown is 
sunken; the sides are rounded, 
and there is a well-developed 
basal rim the base bang quite a ,U“ 
flat. The surface is finely westerly wind. Sketched from life, 
granular, developing into fine 
reticulations near the base. When first laid, the colour is a 
pearl-white, which very gradually turns deeper in hue until 
it is a pale apricot-yellow when a fortnight old. It remains 
unchanged in colour until the middle of January, when a 
slight change takes place and it finally becomes an opaque 
white until hatching early in April. The egg state lasts rather 
more than seven months. 
Larva. The young larva eats a circular hole in the crown 
of the egg as an exit. Directly after emerging, it starts 
spinning the fine grass blades together into a rather dense 
cluster an inch or two above the ground. In this shelter it 
