378 
HESPERIIDAE 
Life of Imago. The life of this remarkably active little 
butterfly is about fifteen or sixteen days. 
Aberration. There are two forms of colouring which occur 
in both sexes, one being of a bright fulvous hue, the other 
much darker and with the green of the under side much 
deeper, the silvery-white spots showing in brilliant contrast. 
There is also considerable aberration in the development of 
the spots on the under surface. 
Occasionally striking aberrations are met with. In the 
Tring collection are tv’o albinistic specimens, with the normal 
dark ground colour replaced by a delicate lilac-drab, and the 
sexual androconial streak is silver-white instead of black. 
Genus OCHLODES, Scudder, 1872 
THE LARGE SKIPPER 
Ochlodes venata (Bremer & Grey, 1852 =sylvanus). 
(Plate XXXII, facing page 349) 
The Large Skipper is one of the most active of the British 
butterflies ; its short flight is rapid and powerful. Being 
very restless, this butterfly is constantly alighting on the 
foliage of undergrowth. The leaves of plants, bushes and 
broad grass blades are its favourite resting places. As soon 
as settled, it turns round, lowers its hind wings, keeping the 
fore wings erect and partly opened. It then sits basking in 
the sunshine. When it alights on a flower to feed, its wings 
are then closed over its back, in which attitude it rests during 
dull weather and at night. 
Haunts and Distribution. This very common butterfly is 
distributed over the v'hole of England and Wales, except for 
Northumberland, where it appears to be absent. In Scotland 
it occurs in the extreme south, and in Ireland it has been 
recorded from Killarney and Wicklow. Its range abroad 
extends over Europe (except for the Polar Regions), Asia, 
China and Japan, also northern Africa. 
The haunts of 0 . venata are very varied ; it occurs on sea 
