283 



AN OUTLINE OF BRITISH CATERPILLARS. 

 No. L 



Genus, Vanessa. 



In a former Volume of The Analyst^ we gave a slight notice of 

 the new and valuable work of Messrs. Boisduval, Rambur, and 

 Graslin, on the Caterpillars of Europe* At the close of that Re- 

 view, a promise was held out to the entomological student, that we 

 would revert to the important subject, and occasionally present a 

 sketch of the various Lepidopiera^ in this active and interesting stage 

 of their progress from the ovum to the adult or imago state. Such 

 promise we shall now redeem ; taking, as by far the most minute 

 and generally correct which we have yet met with, the descriptions 

 of the different Caterpillars from the zealous and enlightened 

 French entomologists, to whose unrivalled work we have just advert- 

 ed. In reading these descriptions, some allowance must obviously 

 be made for the diversities of colouring which may result either 

 from the accidental variations, occasionally exhibited by all organ- 

 ized productions, or from differences of food and climate. 



The beautiful genus, Vanessa, belonging to the Family of the 

 Nymphalidce of modem Entomologists, is, as regards the British spe- 

 cies, divided, by the accurate and scientific Curtis, into three Sec- 

 tions, or Sub-genera ; respectively characterized by the figure of the 

 wings of the adult insects composing it, and the habits of their Ca- 

 terpillars. Preferring the arrangement of Curtis to every other yet 

 published, we shall take the liberty of almost literally transcribing 

 it from his admirable Illustrations of the Genera qf British Insects, f 



• See Analyst, vol. ii., p. 53. 



•f British Entomology, vol. ii., pi. 96. All the species of the modem Lepi- 

 dopterous genus, Vanesm, were comprehended, by I^innaeus, in his great ge- 

 nus, Papilio ; the principal characteristic distinction of which was the club- 

 bed antenna. Stephens, — Systematic Cataioyue of British Insects, Part ii., 

 p. 11, — has severed from the genus, as constructed by Curtis, the 7th spe- 

 cies ; and, placing it in a new genus, under the title of Cynthia Cardiii, enu- 

 merated the Hampstediensis, ^Hampstead-eye, of Albin), — probably a mere 

 variety of V. cardiii, — as a distinct species. In his projects of entomological 

 innovation, rather than of reform, this distinguished author has, however, 

 been outstripped by Professor Rennie; who, in addition to Cynthia, has 

 formed two new genera, Comma and Ammiralis, respectively including the 

 C, album and Atalanta^ of Curtis. See Conspectus of Butterjliesy etc., p. 8. 



