Butterflies

Lepidoptera The Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly – Vanessa Urtica Urtica (Plate III, fig. 9) may be distinguished from Polychloros by the absence of the black spot in the anal angle of the fore wings of the latter. It has also a white spot near the tip of each fore wing-between the black border and the first […]

Lepidoptera The Pale Clouded Yellow Butterfly – Colias Hyale The ground colour of this butterfly (Plate II, fig. 2) is very variable. It is usually a sulphury yellow, and on this account the insect is commonly known as the Clouded Brimstone; but sometimes the yellow is exceedingly pale-almost white-and tinged with green. A very large […]

Lepidoptera The Silver-studded Blue Butterfly – Lycana Agon The upper surface of the male (Plate VI, fig. 11) of this species is purple blue, with a black border on the hind margins of all wings. The female (fig. 12 of the same plate) is of a very dark smoky-brown colour, often with a bluish tinge, […]

Lepidoptera The Silver-washed Fritillary Butterfly – Argynnis Paphia This beautiful and noble butterfly is the largest of the Fritillaries, and the most powerful on the wing. During the latter part of June and throughout July it may be seen gracefully sweeping through the trees and undergrowth of woods, often settling down on a favourite flower […]

Lepidoptera The Peacock Butterfly – Vanessa Io This is another of our commonest and most beautiful butterflies. Its general appearance is such that it cannot possibly be mistaken for any other. The upper side (Plate IV, fig. 1) is rendered conspicuous by the beautiful eye-like marks at the costal angles of all four wings; and […]

Lepidoptera The Dark Hairstreak Butterfly – Thecla Pruni The upper side of this butterfly is very much like that of W-album, but it may be distinguished by the presence of a few orange spots near the anal angle of the hind wings. The colouring of the under side (Plate VI, fig. 5) is also very […]

Lepidoptera The Small Ringlet Butterfly – Erebia Epiphron On account of the very limited range of this butterfly, only those who have the opportunity of visiting its haunts can have any practical acquaintance with its natural history. It is almost exclusively confined to the lake district in England, to a few mountainous localities in Scotland, […]

Lepidoptera The Large White Butterfly – Pieris Brassica We pass now from one of the rarest to one of the most abundant of British butterflies. Everybody has seen the ‘Large White,’ though we doubt whether everybody knows that this insect is not of the same species as the two other very common ‘Whites.’ The three-Large, […]

Lepidoptera The Large Copper Butterfly – Polyommatus Dispar Our next genus contains only two British species. The first of these-the Large Copper-was once a common insect at Whittlesea in Cambridgeshire, and in some of the fens of Huntingdonshire, but is now feared to be quite extinct, as none have been seen for many years. The […]

Lepidoptera The Holly Blue Butterfly – Lycana Argiolus While all the other Blues delight to sport on low flowery banks in the full blaze of the summer’s sun, the Holly Blue prefers to flit among the branches of trees, often many feet from the ground. The larva feeds on the flowers of the holly (Ilex […]