The Butterflies of the British IslesSouth, Richard
Science
The Butterflies of the British Isles
South, Richard
Butterflies -- Great Britain; Butterflies -- Great Britain -- Identification; Lepidoptera -- Great Britain
No doubt this butterfly has been with us all the time, but it appears
to have escaped detection until the year 1888, when Mr. Hawes, in July
of that year, met with it in Essex. He, however, did not then consider
the three specimens that he had taken with _A. thaumas_ anything more
than queer varieties of that species, and it was not until January,
1890, that the fact of _A. lineola_ being British was published. Since
that time this Skipper has been found in a great many parts of Essex,
but chiefly along the coast, and in such localities as Benfleet, Canvey,
Dovercourt, Shoeburyness, Southend, etc. At Hadleigh it is often very
abundant. Other localities are Sheerness, Cliffe, and Gravesend, in
Kent. It has also been reported from near Sudbury, and from Harwich, and
Chappel in Suffolk; from Ashton Wold in Northamptonshire. In 1898 five
specimens, identified by the Rev. Gilbert Raynor, were taken near
Bedford. Barrett, who mentions Wicken Fen and Burwell among other
localities, says that it has a "partiality for the embankments which
protect the cultivated land from the inroad of the high tides which
flood the salt marshes. Here it flits about, or sits on the coarse
seaside grasses or on blossoms of thistle, or _Lotus corniculatus_,
indicating rather sluggish habits, yet flying swiftly when disturbed.
Further inland it seems to frequent chalky hillsides and marshes." It is
on the wing in July and August.
The species is found in all parts of the Palæarctic Region except the
most northern and the Canary Isles.
The Lulworth Skipper (_Adopæa actæon_).
Compared with the other two species on Plate 125, the coloration of this
butterfly is somewhat dingy; it is, however, enlivened, especially in
the female, by a short dash and a curved series of orange spots in the
upper half of the fore wings. The male has a black sexual mark which is
very similar to that of the Small Skipper. There seems to be very little
to note in variation, except that the orange markings referred to are
subject to modification, and in the male may be altogether absent. An
example taken at Swanage, in 1903, had the wings on the left side male,
and those on the right side female.
The egg, figured, from a photograph, on Plate 124, is whitish, faintly
tinged with yellowish.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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