High-Beech (Epping). It is also found near Brighton (plentifully); Carlisle; Durham; Burton-on-Trent; York; Haverfordwest, S. W.; Cardiff, S. W.; Weston-super-Mare; Bristol; and a great number of other places distributed throughout the country. In Ireland at Ardrahan, co. Galway. Rare in Scotland.
THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY FRITILLARY. (Nemeobius Lucina.)
([Plate XI]. fig. 5.)
Though this little insect bears the name of Fritillary, at the end of its lengthy and important title, it really belongs to a family widely differing from that of any of the true Fritillaries previously described, and it only shared their name on account of its similarity in colour and markings.
The caterpillar ([Plate I]. fig. 8), instead of being long and thorny like those of the true Fritillaries, is short, thick, and wood-louse shaped. Its colour is reddish brown, with tufts of hair of the same colour. It feeds on the primrose.
The chrysalis differs from that of the true Fritillaries as much as the caterpillar does, being of the form, and suspended in the manner, shown at fig. 25, [Plate I].
The butterfly is chequered on the upper surface with
tawny, and dark brown or black. It appears in May and June, and again in August, being found in woods, principally in the south, and its range is often confined to a small spot hardly fifty yards in diameter, within which it may be quite plentiful. The following are among its recorded localities:—Carlisle; Lake District; West Yorkshire; Roche Abbey, Yorkshire; Peterborough; Stowmarket; Pembury; Barnwell Wold, Northants; Oxford; Blandford; Worcester; Gloucestershire; Bedfordshire; Epping; Coombe Wood; Darenth Wood; Boxhill; Dorking; Brighton; Lewes; Worthing; Lyndhurst; Teignmouth.
The males of all the members of the family to which this butterfly belongs, and of which this is the sole European representative—the Erycinidæ—have only four legs adapted for walking, whilst the females have six.