=Large Skipper.= 1, 3, _male_; 2, 4 _female_. =Silver-Spotted Skipper.= 5, 7 _male_; 6, 8 _female_. =Chequered Skipper.= 9, 10 _male_; 11 _female_.] [Illustration: _Pl._ 127. =Large Skipper.= _Egg, natural size and enlarged; caterpillars, chrysalis and cocoon._ =Silver-spotted Skipper.= _Egg, natural size and enlarged; caterpillar._ =Chequered Skipper.= _Egg enlarged and caterpillar._] The chrysalis is secured in the cocoon by hooks at the tail and by hooked bristles on the head; the head and thorax are pale olive mottled with blackish; the body olive, spotted with dark olive, and inclining to yellow on the ventral surface; below each spiracle is a short longitudinal mark; the spiracles are amber-brown. The butterfly is to be found in August on most of our chalk hills, but has not been recorded from either Scotland or Ireland. It is a very quick flyer and difficult to capture when on the wing, but it is fond of sitting on low-growing thistles, and is then sometimes easy to take. Abroad it occurs throughout Europe and Northern Asia to China and Japan. The Chequered Skipper (_Carterocephalus palæmon_). The well-defined yellow or orange spots on the blackish-brown ground colour distinguish this butterfly from all other British Skippers. The variation is only of a minor kind, and chiefly in the direction of an increase or a decrease in the number and the size of the spots. Occasionally those on the central area of the fore wings are much enlarged and more or less confluent; and the spots on the outer margin of the hind wings are sometimes very small or entirely absent. The following particulars of the early stages are abstracted from Mr. Frohawk's life-history of the species (_Entomologist_, 1892):-- Living females received in June were placed on a growing plant of brome grass (_Bromus asper_), and a few eggs were deposited, some upon the blades of grass, others upon the gauze-covered glass jar in which the plant was placed; they were laid singly, firmly adhering to whatever laid upon. The first lot of eggs were deposited on June 14. The egg has a pearly appearance, being whitish or yellowish-white in colour. Ten days after the egg is deposited the young caterpillar emerges by eating away the crown. Soon after hatching out the young caterpillar makes a little tubular dwelling, drawing together the edges of the grass-blade by spinning about three or four stout cords of silk, which quickly contract, causing the edges to draw together, and sometimes to overlap, forming a compact short tube; generally before spinning it nibbles off the extreme edge of the blade where the silk is afterwards attached. It feeds upon the blade both above and below its abode, devouring so much that frequently only the midrib of the blade remains, and the tube only just long enough to conceal it; it then shifts its quarters, and prepares a new home.