THE LARGE SKIPPER 
379 
cliffs and in the depths of the largest and densest forests and 
woods in the Midlands. Its chief resorts are the rides and 
borders of woods, sheltered flowery waysides, and rough 
uncultivated land abounding with a mixed flowery growth ; 
it also commonly frequents slopes and hollows of hillsides 
and downs where abounds its food plant, chiefly the Slender 
False Brome Grass (Brachy podium sylvaticum). 
Time of Appearance. The Large Skipper is essentially a 
single-brooded species, although it is commonly met with on 
the wing from early June until the middle of August. 
Hibernation. 0 . vcnata hibernates as a larva after its fourth 
moult. It enters into hibernation in the middle of September 
and does not leave its hiber- 
naculum until the middle of 
March. 
Egg and Egg Laying. When 
about to deposit, the butter¬ 
fly alights on the upper 
surface of a grass blade ; 
she then curves her abdomen 
round and below the edge of 
the blade and lays a single 
egg, and flies off to repeat 
the performance. The egg 
is laid fully exposed on the 
under surface of a blade, not 
in any sheath or fold of the stem, as is the case with the 
genus Adopoea. 
Egg. The egg is dome-shaped and is 0'8o mm. in diameter 
at the base ; the centre of the crown is slightly sunken. The 
surface is covered with extremely fine reticulations of a net¬ 
work pattern, chiefly hexagonal in shape. When first laid, 
the colour is pearl-white ; it very gradually changes to orange 
when about ten days old, and finally, before hatching, it 
becomes an opaque pearl-white with a deep leaden crown 
caused by the large dark head of the larva showing through 
the shell. The egg state occupies about eighteen days. 
Larva. Directly after emerging from the egg, the little 
larva feeds on the empty shell; it then crawls along the grass 
blade and starts constructing its dwelling by spinning a large 
The Large Skipper resting in sunshine. 
Sketched from life. 
