The chrysalis is whitish-ochreous, with dark brown streaks on the wing-covers and some brownish spots and clouds on the back and sides. Suspended from stem or blade of grass; the old skin remains attached. The caterpillars feed at night on grasses, such as _Poa annua_, _Triticum repens_, and _Dactylis glomerata_, from September to June. The butterfly is on the wing in July and August. Although these butterflies may be seen, sometimes in considerable numbers, where the rides are grassy, in woods, they are perhaps more attached to hedgerows. Bramble flowers are their special attraction, but they are not indifferent to the blossoms of the wood sage (_Teucrium scorodonia_) or of marjoram (_Origanum vulgare_). Pretty generally distributed throughout England, it is often exceedingly plentiful in the south and also in South Wales. In Scotland the butterfly seems to be common in Kircudbrightshire, but not common in other southern counties up to Argyle and Fife. Kane says that in Ireland it is almost confined to the southern counties. Abroad it is found throughout Europe, except the North-East, and its range extends into Northern Asia Minor. The Ringlet (_Aphantopus hyperanthus_). The sombre-looking butterfly, of which several figures will be found on Plate 89, has been known by its present English name since 1778, the year in which Moses Harris published "The Aurelian." The Latin specific name was written _hyperantus_ by Linnæus, but Esper corrected this to _hyperanthus_. It has, however, been supposed that Linnæus really intended to have written _hyperanthes_ (a son of Darius), and this form of the name has been used, but Esper's emendation is here adopted. [Illustration: FIG. 27. =Var. lanceolata.=] All the wings are sooty-brown, the male when quite fresh appearing almost black, and the sexual brand is then difficult to see; there are one or more black spots with pale rings, and sometimes white pupils, on the fore wings, but these are always more prominent in the female than in the male; in the latter sex they may be entirely absent. On the under side there are generally two, sometimes three, ocellated spots on the fore wings, and there are five such spots on the hind wings, the two nearest the costa being double, and not very infrequently there is a smaller spot near or attached to the lower edge of the double one. In the matter of size of the spots on the under side there is a wide range of variation, and at one end of this is var. _lanceolata_, Shipp, and at the other var. _obsoleta_, Tutt, in which not a trace of any of the spots remains. Specimens with a varying number of white dots, with or without yellow rings, are usually referred to var. _arete_, but Fig. 6 on the Plate represents a modification of this variety, known as _coeca_. [Illustration: _Pl._ 88. =Ringlet.= _Egg, natural size and enlarged; caterpillar and chrysalids._] [Illustration: _Pl._ 89. =Ringlet.= 1, 2, 3, 7 _male_; 4, 5, 8 _female_; 6 _var. cæca_, _male_.]