Shady lanes, rides in woods, as well as the borders of the same, are its favourite haunts. It is not a sun-loving butterfly, but is generally found to frequent places where the sun's rays are more or less intercepted by a leafy screen. It seems to be more abundant in wet seasons than in dry ones. It is generally distributed throughout England and Wales, but more plentiful in southern and western counties than in the eastern and northern. In Ireland, Kane says, it is "everywhere abundant and double brooded." It is local in Scotland, and rare north of the Caledonian Canal. Abroad our form of the butterfly _egerides_ is found commonly in Central and Northern Europe, except in the extreme north, and in Northern Asia Minor and Armenia. The typical form, _egeria_ proper, occurs in South-Western Europe, North Africa, and Syria. The Wall Butterfly (_Pararge megæra_). The butterfly now under consideration is figured on Plate 82. It is bright fulvous in colour, with blackish-brown veins, margins, and transverse lines. There is one white pupilled black spot on the fore wings, and four of such spots on the outer area of the hind wings; the fourth, which is generally blind, is placed at the end of the series near the anal angle. The male has a very conspicuous sexual brand on the central area. The under side of the fore wings is paler than above, but the markings are similar, except that the brand is absent and the margins are greyer; the hind wings on the under side are greyish marked with brown and traversed by dark lines; there is a row of six eyed spots on the outer area; that nearest the anal angle is double. The female has more ample wings, and as the brand is absent on the fore wings in this sex, the central black transverse lines are more distinct. [Illustration: _Pl._ 82. =Wall Butterfly.= 1, 2, 5 _male_; 3, 4, 6 _female_.] [Illustration: _Pl._ 83. =Wall Butterfly.= _Eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillar and chrysalis._] [Illustration: FIG. 26. The Wall Butterfly just emerged from the Chrysalis, and with wings distended.] Variation is chiefly in the size of the eyed spots; sometimes the apical one of the fore wings has a smaller one attached to its lower margin, or in the interspace (_i.e._ between the veins) above it or below it; or both extra spots, which are usually without white pupils, may be present. Very rarely the apical spot may be almost absent on one fore wing, but well defined on the other. The central transverse lines on the fore wings of the female are sometimes broad, and very occasionally the space between the lines is blackish; blackish-banded male specimens are also found in some localities, such as the slopes of Dartmoor, Devon, as mentioned by Barrett. The ground colour varies in tint, darker or lighter than normal, but specimens of a bright golden yellow-brown, straw colour, or whitish are known to occur, although such extreme aberrations are exceptional.