Pieris brassicae (Linn.) Large White
p25. Resident and migrant, widespread and common to very common. Universally distributed and
often very common, although markedly less abundant than formerly. The native stock is still
frequently augmented in late summer by migrants.
Pieris rapae (Linn.) Small White
p25. Resident and migrant, widespread and common to very common. As for P. brassicae
above.
Pieris napi (Linn.) Green-veined White
p25. Resident, widespread and common to very common. Still common everywhere but, like its
two close relatives (above) less so than formerly.
Pontia daplidice (Linn.) Bath White
p25. Migrant, very rare. Three examples only (all in S.E. Essex) since 1925, the last in 1947 which
was a notable daplidice year *.
Anthocharis cardamines (Linn.) Orange-tip
p25. Resident, common. Generally distributed and common in many districts. Appears to be
maintaining its numbers and even increasing in some areas.
LYCAENIDAE
A very extensive family of very small to medium-sized butterflies. The British species fall into two
subfamilies: the hairstreaks (Theclinae) and blues and coppers (Lycaeninae). All three pairs of legs
are functional but the males' tarsi on the forelegs are not fully developed. The various species are most
easily distinguished by the (usually numerous) underside markings. The larvae are wood-louse
shaped and frequently attractive to ants. The pupae are stout and most are attached to the foodplant or
to leaf-litter by their cremaster (tail-hooks) and a silken girdle. Hairstreaks feed as larvae on specific
trees or shrubs; they overwinter in the egg stage with the exception of the green hairstreak which
spends winter as a pupa. The coppers, and most blues, overwinter as larvae and feed on specific types
of broad-leaved grassland plants: exceptions are the silver-studded blue which overwinters as an egg
and the holly blue which feeds on holly and ivy and overwinters as a pupa. Nine of the fourteen
surviving British residents have bred in Essex.
Callophrys rubi (Linn.) Green Hairstreak
p35. Resident, local, locally fairly common. Quite common in a few localities containing open
woodland, scrub-covered grassland or heathland with good stands of broom or gorse, but now absent
from extensive areas. The Guide gave its strongholds as Danbury Ridge and the Colchester district;
other sites for it are Grays Chalk Quarry NR and, scattered, in the Rochford and Tendring Hundreds.
The only post-Guide record away from those areas is: 40 near Harlow, 1976 (AJF).
Thecla betulae (Linn.) Brown Hairstreak
pl 32. Resident, very local and rare. This hairstreak was formerly a local resident with Epping
Forest as its stronghold*. After the turn of the century there had been no report of its presence
anywhere in Essex until the 1970s it reappeared as follows: 39, 40 Epping Forest, four individuals
found over a fairly wide area, August and September 1983; ovum January 1984 (MC); 72 Shal-
ford, female, 1974 or 1975 (PJB).
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