The butterfly abounds almost everywhere, from June till the end of August.
THE LARGE HEATH BUTTERFLY. (Hipparchia Tithonus.)
([Plate VI]. fig. 2, Male.)
Though much less abundant than the last, this is another very common species, and met with throughout England and the south of Scotland.
The ground tint above is a rich rust-colour, or orange-brown, bordered with dark-brown; the base of the wings also slightly clouded with the same; and on each front wing, near the tip, there is a black eye-spot, with two white dots. So far, both sexes are similar; but the male has, in addition, a bar of dark-brown across the centre of the rust-coloured space, on the upper wing. This sex is that figured on the plate.
Underneath, there is a pretty arrangement of subdued colouring; that of the front wings nearly resembling the upper side; the lower wings clouded and spotted with russet-brown on a paler brown ground, the dark rounded brown spots having white centres; but there are no black eye-spots on the hind wings.
The caterpillar is greenish-grey, with reddish head and two pale lines on each side and a dark one down the back.
The butterfly, a feeble flier and easily captured, appears in July and August; its favourite resorts being heaths, dry fields, and lanes.