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
A form of variation in the female, and most frequent perhaps in Irish
specimens, is a tendency of the spots on the upper side of the fore
wings to spread and run together, and so form an interrupted band.
Specimens with a distinct creamy tint on the wings are sometimes met
with, but such varieties, as well as yellow ones (var. _flava_, Kane),
are probably more often obtained in Ireland and Scotland than in
England. Occasionally male specimens of the second brood have two black
spots on the disc of the wing. Some forms of this butterfly have been
named, and these will now be referred to.
_Sabellicæ_ (Petiver), Stephens, has been considered as a species
distinct from _P. napi_, L. Stephens ("Brit. Entom. Haust.," I. Pl.
iii., Figs. 3, 4) figured a male and a female as _sabellicæ_, which he
states differs from _napi_ in having shorter and more rounded
yellowish-white wings. No locality or date is given in the text (p. 21)
for the specimens figured; but referring to another example which he
took at Highgate on June 4, he says that it agrees with his Fig. 2.
Probably, however, it was his second figure that he intended, the Fig. 4
of the plate, which is a female. This is rather more heavily marked with
dusky scales than is usual in specimens of the first brood, at least in
England, although it agrees in this respect with some Irish June
examples. Fig. 3 represents a male which certainly seems to be referable
to the spring form. Most authors give _sabellicæ_ as belonging to the
summer flight, but this does not seem to be correct.
Var. _napææ_ is a large form of the summer brood, occurring commonly on
the Continent, in which the veins on the under side of the hind wings
are only faintly shaded with greenish-grey. Occasionally specimens are
taken in this country in August, which both from their size and faint
markings on the under side seem to be referable to this form.
Var. _bryoniæ_ is an Alpine form of the female, and in colour is dingy
yellow or ochreous, with the veins broadly suffused with blackish grey,
sometimes so broadly as to hide the greater part of the ground colour.
This form does not occur in any part of the British Islands, but some
specimens from Ireland and from the north of Scotland somewhat approach
it.
All the early stages are shown on Plate 10.
The egg is of a pale straw colour when first laid, but it soon turns to
greenish, and as the caterpillar within matures, the shell of the egg
becomes paler. The ribs seem to be fourteen in number.
The eggs are laid singly on hedge garlic (_Sisymbrium alliaria_) and
other kinds of plants belonging to the Cruciferæ. The egg in the
illustration was laid on a seed-pod of hedge garlic, but the caterpillar
that hatched from it was reared on leaves of garden "nasturtium" and
wallflower.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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