MELIT^A DIA. 



ORDER. LEPIDOPTERA. FAMILY. NYMPHALIDiE* 



PURPLE-UNDERWINGED FRITILLARY. 

 By J. C. Dale, Esq. 



This butterfly has, for some time past, held a situation amongst the doubtful 

 natives of this kingdom, but has never been well authenticated till the captures 

 made at Sutton Park (?), by Mr. Weaver, of the Museum of Birmingham, about 

 ten or twelve years since. 



The following is from Turton, p. 42, A.D. 1806 :— 



" Papilio Dia, (marked as British). — Wings, fulvous, spotted with black; 

 lower ones beneath, purple, the base with yellow and silvery spots and an obsolete 

 silvery band in the middle. 



" Inhabits Europe. Esp. tab. 16, f. 4. 



" Lower Wings with a row of six black dots towards the tip, the two middle 

 ones slightly pupillate. 



" Larva, grey, with alternate rows of white and feruginous spines. 



" Pupa, yellowish, variegated with black." 



Stewart also gives it as British, nearly describes it the same as Turton, and 

 says the caterpillar feeds on the viola (A. D. 1817, 2nd edition). 



M. Dia was found in great numbers, on the east coast of Greenland, 71° N., 

 by Mr. Scoresby. 



ARGYNNIS AGLAIA, var. 



The second figure in the subjoined plate is a variety of A. Aglaia, of which 

 Mr. Sowerby gives the following specific characters : " Above, dull orange, with 

 black marks ; nineteen silver spots on the lower wing beneath." Sowerby says, 

 " The nineteen silver spots are very constant ;" but he had seen no intermediate 

 or other variety, of which there are now several, (one figured by Mr. Curtis, 

 plate 290 of British Entomology.) Haworth also speaks of "Alee anticce lituris 

 4 nee, 5 costalibus utrinque, quarum 2 nee, 1 compositae sunt ;" but he did not 

 think of the more or less confluence of spots. 



The late Dr. Abbot took three specimens of the variety described by Haworth 

 as Charlotta (Caroletta ?), near Bedford, nearly all alike, and gave one to Mr. 

 Haworth, and one to Mr. Sowerby, who figured it in his British Miscellany, 

 plate 2 ; I bought the third in his collection, and have procured another taken near 

 Peterborough, which represents on the reverse the characters of Charlotta on one 



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