Why is there a rabbit on a pentacle card?

Ok, this has bothered me for a while. If you are of the persuasion that pentacles are earth, and earth is related to winter (or autumn as I tend to believe) Why would a rabbit which to me is all about spring be on the queen of pentacles?

Also The Empress is related to earth but I definately dont find her to be wintery, perhaps late summer/autumn but definately not winter in most decks. As an example, the Queen of pentacles in the Druidcraft deck has a rabbit (or a hare) and im pretty sure this deck uses earth/winter correspondences for pentacles. There seem to be quite a few decks that use a rabbit in the pentacles but I cant think which ones right now.

Also the Llewellyn deck has what may be a rabbit on the page of wands though I am thinking this may actually be a Hare which would relate to action and speed etc, but what is even more confusing is that in the Llewellyn book the author has used wands for the intellect rather than action. I choose to use traditional swords/intellect and wands/action to get around this.

I find the correspondences somewhat confusing at times and im sure I can find many other examples of this.

Any thoughts?

To me Pentacles are Autumn the time when we gather in a harvest...rabbits are a symbol of fertility and abundance...so a rabbit on a Pentacle card makes sense to me.
On a Wand card I think of rabbits as quick..quick in action, and quick in thought, which also goes along with the Wands for me.

could it also be that the queen of pentacles, (and actually ALL queens) are seen as creative people--and each queen also is somewhat interchangeable with the Empress. They are seen as maternal cards---nurturing, and this would also remind one of childbearing--thus the rabbit.

in addition to being a symbol of fertility, the rabbit is also symbolic of spring and Easter. Also as a symbol of innocence, and the Empress herself has a look of innocence about her. The rabbit can also be symbolic of playful sex mates, (remember the Playboy Bunnies?), and also a tricky animal, a luck charm, (did you ever carry a rabbits foot?), and yes, as being fast!

The Queen of Wands is about creating and development of ideas--the queen of cups is very motherly and nurturing, the queen of swords can possibly be seen as a trickster, as well as one who acts quickly and swiftly, and the queen of pentacles as a nurturing person also, as well as being good with business matters. so, all these queens in addition to the Empress could be depicted with a rabbit in their card, I think.

I think it may have to do with with the hidden nature of a queen as it is mythologically associated with the moon, it is a lunar animal, funny enough it is associated with the underworld too.. but again hidden things.

White rabbits are triumphs over the flesh in early Renaissance.

AS it is defenseless it is also considered a symbol for humanity.

Pliny the elder says this is the favorite animal of the Goddess Aphrodite and it is highly beneficial to women. Its meat makes sterile women fertile and eating its testicles flavors the conception of male offspring. Walking a hare around your bed three times lead to an easy labour. I can see all these things relating to the Queen of Pentacles.

You TCO, you have planted a seed . The underworld , fertility, agility. These all lend to an active, quick, imaginative (moon) , thats in tune with hidden (underworld ) knowledge. Which would fit in because the crown is adorned with a goats head and red feathers. Hermetically speaking that is a sign of initation into secret knowledge.