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 cœca.
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Pl. 88.
Ringlet.
Egg, natural size and enlarged; caterpillar and chrysalids.