The Butterflies of the British Isles

by Richard South

"They are not difficult to rear in confinement if the larvæ are kept properly supplied with food."

This butterfly, which as a British species was discovered in the Isle of Arran in 1804, only occurs in the north of England and in Scotland. Its localities in the latter country are Glen Tilt and other valleys in the Perthshire highlands, Strathglass in Inverness, Altyre woods at Forres; Selkirk, Roxburgh, and various parts of Argyleshire; around the Lowther Hills, Dumfrieshire; also in Arran and the Isle of Skye. In most of the places it is plentiful. In England it occurs in the counties of Durham, Westmoreland, Cumberland, Lancashire, and Yorkshire. It is common in Castle Eden Dene, Durham; at Grassington, in Yorkshire; at Witherslack and Arnside, in Westmoreland; and at Grange and Silverdale, in Lancashire.

Abroad, it is distributed through Central and Southern Europe, and its range extends into Northern Asia Minor, Kurdistan, and Armenia; the Altai and South Siberia.

It may be noted here that E. ligea was supposed to have been taken in Arran at the same time as E. blandina, that is in 1804. If this were so, it would seem that the captor must have exterminated the species, for, although the island has often been closely explored, no one has been able to detect the "Arran Brown" again.

The Grayling (Satyrus semele).

On the upper side, this butterfly (Plate [78]) is brown, more or less suffused with black, and this is especially noticeable on the outer area of the wings in the male, where it obscures the ochreous or rust-coloured bands, which in the female are almost free from the suffusion. The fore wings have two black spots, the upper one generally, and the lower often, pupilled with white. On the hind wings the bands are clear of blackish suffusion to a greater or lesser extent, and there is one black spot towards the anal angle which may be pupilled with white. Apart from its larger size and brighter bands, the female may be distinguished from the male by the absence of the blackish brand on the disc of the fore wings. On the under side, the fore wings are ochreous, tinged with orange on the basal half or two-thirds; hind wings are greyish, with darker markings, and an irregular white or whitish band beyond the middle.

Variation is largely confined to the under side of the hind wings, and these wings, as well as the costal edge and the tips of the fore wings, are coloured and marked, in various localities that the butterfly affects, so that the insects may be protected from their enemies when resting.

On the upper side of the fore wings an additional spot is sometimes present below one or other of the usual ones. The bands of the wings are pale ochreous in some examples, and rust-coloured in others; but it is not unusual for a specimen with ochreous bands on the fore wings to have rust-coloured bands on the hind wings, or ochreous bands with rust-coloured patches on the outer portion; these patches are most frequently triangular in shape, and placed between the veins. Gynandrous specimens also occur, but very rarely.

The egg is of a dull creamy tint, ribbed, and with a slight depression on the top. The eggs were laid early in August, on blades and stems of a kind of grass; also on the leno covering, and the sides of the glass jar in which the female butterfly was enclosed.

The caterpillar when full grown "is drab, delicately mottled, with longitudinal stripes broadest along the middle segments, viz. a dorsal stripe of olive-brown, very dark at the beginning of each segment, with a thin edging of brownish-white. Along the subdorsal region are three stripes, of which the first is composed of a double narrow line of yellowish-brown, the second wider of the mottled ground colour, edged with paler above and with white below; the third of similar width is of a dark grey-brown, edged above with black. The spiracular stripe is broader and of nearly equal width, pale ochreous-brown, edged with brownish-white both above and below; the spiracles are black. The head is brown, and the principal stripes of the body are delicately marked with darker brown" (Buckler).