Var. scotica, Staudinger (laidion, Staud., but not of Borkhausen), Pl. [90,] Figs. 1, 2, 4, 5♂, 3♀, is the typhon of Haworth, as stated by Newman; the latter author, however, figures it as davus, Fabricius, which is doubtful.
The ground colour is pale tawny, sometimes suffused with brownish, greyish on the margin, and broadly so on the outer area of the hind wings; the spots are often absent, and when present are rarely very distinct. The female is much paler than the male. The under side of the hind wings is somewhat similar to that of the typical form, but sometimes the whole area is a uniform greyish; the spots are only rarely at all distinct, and then only one, or perhaps two, on a wing, and not infrequently they are entirely absent. This form occurs in Scotland, especially in Aberdeenshire and Sutherlandshire, also in the Isle of Arran, in the Orkney and Shetland Isles, and in the Outer Hebrides. Kane states that he has met with single specimens at "Killarney, Westmeath, Galway, and Sligo."
In some localities, such as Carlisle, Rotherham, and others in Yorkshire, forms intermediate between the type and var. philoxenus are found; modifications of the type form in the direction of var. scotica occur in Cumberland, Northumberland, and Co. Leitrim, in Ireland; and forms approaching the type more nearly than var. scotica are met with in the Glasgow district, and at Pitcaple in Aberdeenshire.
The egg is very pale greenish-yellow at first, but the green fades, brownish blotches appear, and some dark markings appear around the upper part a short while before the caterpillar hatches out. It is finely scored almost from the base to the top, which is depressed, and has a raised boss in the centre, as in the egg of the Small Heath.
From some eggs sent to me in July, caterpillars hatched in August. They fed on ordinary meadow grass, and in September were figured, when they were about half an inch in length. Head shallowly notched in front, green, roughened with whitish dots, eyes and jaws brownish. Body green, roughened with white dots, with darker line down the back, and paler, almost white lines along the sides, anal projections reddish (these were greenish when younger).
The figure of the full-grown caterpillar is after Buckler, who describes it as "of a bright green, with dark bluish-green dorsal line, edged with pale lemon-yellow, the subdorsal and spiracular lines are of the same pale yellow, but the subdorsal is edged above with dark bluish-green, and between these two lines is an interrupted streak of a darker colour, posteriorly with a slight tinge of reddish or pink, and the caudal fork is tipped with pink."
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Pl. 90.