Pl. 123.
Grizzled Skipper.
Eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillar and shelter; chrysalis in cocoon.
The butterfly affects open places in, or the edges of, woods in chalky districts, also the slopes of chalk downs and other hillsides, as well as railway banks and even rough fields. It evidently delights in sunshine, and may often be seen basking on a stone or the bare earth. When at rest at night or on dull days it sits on a dead seed-head or grass glume, with the wings closed down over its back like a noctuid moth, and is then difficult to detect until the eye becomes accustomed to its appearance. It is widely distributed in Great Britain, but it is more at home on chalk and limestone than elsewhere. In such localities as the fens of Norfolk and Cambridge it is scarce, and seems to have a rather limited distribution in Ireland, in which country Galway is its headquarters, according to Kane.
Abroad, it is found throughout Europe, and its range extends to Western Asia.
The Small Skipper (Adopæa thaumas).
All the wings are brownish-orange, with the veins darker and becoming black towards the outer margins, especially on the fore wings. The male has a black sexual mark (Plate [125]).
Except that the colour varies in the direction of a pale golden tint there is little in the way of aberration in this butterfly. At least one gynandrous specimen has been recorded.
The following descriptions of the early stages (Plate [124]), as well as the figures of the caterpillar and the chrysalis, are from Buckler's "Larvæ of British Butterflies":—
The egg "is of a long oval figure, half as long again as wide, the shell glistening, devoid of ribs or reticulation; at first white, then turning dull yellowish, and at last paler again, with the dark head of the caterpillar showing through. The young caterpillar eats part of the empty egg-shell."