PLATE XVII1. Grizzled Skipper2. Dingy Skipper3. Large Skipper4. Small Skipper
PLATE XVII
1. Grizzled Skipper2. Dingy Skipper3. Large Skipper4. Small Skipper
This little butterfly certainly deserves its name. One cannot call it a pretty insect, for it is just dull, dingy brown all over, with just a faint grey band running across the middle of the wings. So unless you look very carefully for it you are not likely to see it. It does not live in woods, like the “grizzled skipper,” but flies about on flowery chalk banks in the sunshine, first in May, and then again in August. And sometimes you may see it in numbers in an old chalk-pit, never resting on one flower for more than a very few moments, but skipping about in the most active way from one blossom to another.
The caterpillar of this little butterfly feeds on the bird’s-foot trefoil, that low plant with yellow flowers which grows so commonly on chalky banks. If you should ever happen to find this caterpillar you can tell it at once by its colour, which is pale green, with two yellow stripes running along each side of the body, and over each stripe is a row of little black dots. When it has finished growing it turns into a fat and rather bunchy little chrysalis, which is dull green in front and rosy-red behind.
The Large Skipper is one of the commonest of all these queer little butterflies, and you may see it in dozens and dozens, skipping actively about from flower to flower on grassy banks by the roadside, and in open places in woods. The male is not quite like the female, for he has a rather large streak of dark brown running across his front wings, which look as if they had been scorched down the middle. And the body of the female is so very stout that she certainly looks much more like a moth than a butterfly.
If you want to find the caterpillar of this insect you must look for it on different kinds of meadow-grass. It has a big brown head and a dull green body, with a dark line running along the back dotted with black. And underneath, on the hinder part of its body, it has a number of white spots. When it is fully grown it fastens three or four grass-stems together by means of silken threads, and then turns to a rather long and thin chrysalis of a pale brown colour between them. Look out for the butterfly on bright sunny days in May, and again in August.
This queer little butterfly, which is about half the size of the “large skipper,” is very nearly as common. But it only makes its appearance once in the year instead of twice, generally about the middle of July. The best places in which to look for it are grassy banks by the sides of lanes and open places in woods. But it is so small that unless you look very carefully you will most likely pass it by. The male butterfly is not quite like the female, for he has a thin black line running along the middle of his front wings.
This butterfly lays its eggs on different kinds of grass, and when they hatch, the little caterpillars feed for a few weeks, and then find their way into some snug retreat, in which they sleep all through the autumn and winter. Early in the spring they come out from their hiding-places and begin to feed again; and by about the beginning of June they are ready to turn into chrysalids. If ever you should happen to find them you may know them at once, for they are green in colour, with six white stripes running all the way along their bodies. And besides this they are quite fat in the middle, and quite thin at the head and the tail.