In some localities, such as Carlisle, Rotherham, and others in Yorkshire, forms intermediate between the type and var. _philoxenus_ are found; modifications of the type form in the direction of var. _scotica_ occur in Cumberland, Northumberland, and Co. Leitrim, in Ireland; and forms approaching the type more nearly than var. _scotica_ are met with in the Glasgow district, and at Pitcaple in Aberdeenshire. The egg is very pale greenish-yellow at first, but the green fades, brownish blotches appear, and some dark markings appear around the upper part a short while before the caterpillar hatches out. It is finely scored almost from the base to the top, which is depressed, and has a raised boss in the centre, as in the egg of the Small Heath. From some eggs sent to me in July, caterpillars hatched in August. They fed on ordinary meadow grass, and in September were figured, when they were about half an inch in length. Head shallowly notched in front, green, roughened with whitish dots, eyes and jaws brownish. Body green, roughened with white dots, with darker line down the back, and paler, almost white lines along the sides, anal projections reddish (these were greenish when younger). The figure of the full-grown caterpillar is after Buckler, who describes it as "of a bright green, with dark bluish-green dorsal line, edged with pale lemon-yellow, the subdorsal and spiracular lines are of the same pale yellow, but the subdorsal is edged above with dark bluish-green, and between these two lines is an interrupted streak of a darker colour, posteriorly with a slight tinge of reddish or pink, and the caudal fork is tipped with pink." [Illustration: _Pl._ 90. =Large Heath.= 1, 3, 4, 6 _male_, 2 _female (Delamere)_; 7, 9 _male_, 5 _female (Arran)_; 8 _male (N. Salop)_; 10 _do. (Ireland)_; 11 _do. (Carlisle)_.] [Illustration: _Pl._ 91. =Large Heath.= _Eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillars and chrysalis._] The chrysalis is bright green, with brown streaks on the edges and centre of the wing-covers, and at the tip of the tail, turning dark brown just before the butterfly emerges. (Figure and description after Buckler.) The eggs are laid in July on blades of grass, and the caterpillars hatch out in that month and August. The food of the caterpillars is said to be the beaked-rush (_Rhynchospora alba_); those that I had from Witherslack eggs fed well upon ordinary grass until October, but they died during the winter. After hibernation they recommence feeding, and are full grown in May and June, when they pupate, and the butterflies appear at the end of June and in July.