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
Var. _hutchinsoni_, Robson, which has been renamed _pallida_ and
_lutescens_, differs from the typical form in having the ground colour
much lighter and brighter on the upper side and ochreous on the under
side. It is shown on Plate 35. The outline of the wings of this form,
which occurs in June and July, is said to be less jagged, and this may
be so as a rule, but it certainly is not always the case. Possibly this
is "The Pale Comma" of Petiver.
There are two broods of this species in the year, but the first or
summer flight of butterflies seems to depend upon a favourable season,
as also does the second or autumnal brood, at least as regards the
number of butterflies representing it. The late butterflies hibernate
and reappear in April, or even March, of the following year. It has been
stated that all the specimens appearing in the spring are of the form
with plain under sides.
From eggs laid between April 27 and May 6, Miss E. Hutchinson, writing
in 1887, says caterpillars hatched between May 5 and 11. They were "fed"
on currant and nettle mixed, and were full grown from June 17th till the
23rd. The first butterfly emerged on June 26, and the last on July 3,
and all were very fine and of the pale summer variety. Two of the
insects paired on June 30, and the female commenced laying on July 1,
and continued doing so till the 10th, when there were 120 ova.
Unfortunately, a very cold spell of weather began on July 12, and more
than half the eggs perished. The butterflies resulting from the
remainder appeared during August, from the 17th to the 27th, but they
would not pair, probably because, although they had emerged at an early
date, they properly belonged to the autumnal flight.
In 1894 Mr. Frohawk reared 200 of these butterflies from 275 eggs laid
by a female between April 17 and June 1 of that year. The caterpillars
were supplied with nettle only. The first butterfly emerged on June 30,
and the last on August 2. Of the whole number forty-one were of the
light fulvous form, var. _hutchinsoni_, and all the others of the dark
or typical form. With few exceptions, the light-coloured butterflies
were the first to emerge, and the major portion of these during early
July, and before any examples of the dark form had come out.
The egg is at first green in colour with ribs whiter, but changes before
the caterpillar hatches out to yellowish. In confinement the female
butterflies deposit their eggs singly or in chains of three or four;
probably the latter is the usual method of laying the eggs under natural
conditions.
The caterpillar when full grown is black, netted with greyish; the
spines on the second to fifth rings inclusive are yellowish, and those
on the back of the other rings are white; the back from ring 6 to ring
10 inclusive is broadly white, marked with black, and the upper surface
of the other rings is more or less yellowish. The head is black, marked
with ochreous; the crown is lobed, and on each lobe is a short club-like
knob.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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