But it is better still to seek for the caterpillars. These may be found on low Sallows or Poplars. They are green, dusted with white, and have oblique dashes of yellow on the sides; they taper considerably towards the tail, while the head is adorned with a pair of horns. The chrysalis is similarly coloured while alive, but when its inhabitant is gone the colour vanishes with it, and all that remains looks like a little bit of crumpled tissue paper. It may be found suspended to the under side of a leaf of the food-plant. The butterfly is out in July in the southern counties, and is oftener seen than captured.
The Marbled White Butterfly (Melanargia Galathea), [Plate IX.], Fig. 1.—We now come to a group of butterflies (the Satyridæ) quite the reverse in build and habits from the Emperors and Admirals. Of medium or small size, though the wings are ample, the body is small and the muscular power is never great; hence they are soft and downy, never fly far at a stretch, and are, although many of them common, very local in their habits.
And the Marbled White is no exception to the group. His name may suggest something hard, polished, and durable, yet he is anything but that. I wonder what his name might have been had he been common north of the Tweed, and not known in the South? To Sir Walter Scott, James Hogg (the Ettrick Shepherd), or Professor Blackie, the similarity of the black and white wings to the checking and soft, embracing folds of their own beloved tartan plaids would at once have appealed to their imagination, and henceforth they would have alluded to him as the “Shepherd’s Plaid” butterfly.
Creamy-white, with grey and black checking, and a few eye-spots on the black band of the hind-wings complete his simple scheme of colour. The under side is somewhat similar to the upper. Although common enough where it is found, it is a very local and stay-at-home butterfly.
The caterpillar is a grass-feeder, and is green, with a red head and tail. It tapers considerably towards both extremities. They are very small when they hibernate. The butterfly is out in July and August.
The Mountain Ringlet Butterfly (Erebia Epiphron), [Plate IX.], Fig 2.—It is strange that this fragile little fellow should choose the rough mountainside for his home. In a boggy hollow of Ben Lomond, nearly 2,000 feet above the sea, buried in snow almost the whole winter through, I know a colony of this butterfly which lives and flourishes under these seemingly impossible conditions. Doubtless it could be found on many more of our Highland hills.
The wings are a dark, fulvous brown, with an inconstant red bar near the outer edge of both wings, and on this rusty bar are usually a few small eye-spots, sometimes absent, or reduced to mere specks. The under side is almost similar. It is a very easily damaged little creature, requiring great care in handling, and I may add that in catching it is always advisable to carefully select your specimens on the ground, as quite a large percentage always appear to be rubbed, so soon do they become unfit for the cabinet even in the height of their season, which occurs during the first fortnight of July.
The caterpillar is said to be green, and feeds upon various grasses. It is also found on the mountains of Cumberland and Westmorland.