Till'; I.l.l'IDOI'i KKA OF ESSEX. 93 



Uiu'crtain and irregular in appearance, but generally distributed. 

 S;)me years, as 1879, abundant, in others quite absent. [Very common 

 at Woodford Bridge in 1877, and occurs in most years, more or less 

 abundantly, in the Forest districts. — JF. Co/e.] Ray says, "Occurs 

 with us frequently enough round braintree and elsewhere " {H./. 

 422 nrfe 122). Mr. Cole has in his cabinet a very beautiful aber- 

 ration of this butterfly, taken in his garden at Huckhurst Hill, on 

 |unc iith, 1879. A similar specimen is figured by Newman 

 (/y./y. 64) from Mr. Ingall's Collection. 



Limenitis sibylla, L. White Admiral. 



Geographical Distribution — Central Europe, Spain, and South Russia, Ens;land. 



Larva — Green, with 3ellowish blotches, two rows of spines on back — reddish 

 at tips with black branches, brown at base — white streak on side ; head, red- 

 brown. Food — Honeysuckle ; preferably those plants climbing oak-trunks. 

 Imago — June and July ; hibernates as larva. 



Rare, every year becoming more so ; in woods. 



" The graceful elegance displayed by this charming species when 

 sailing on the wing is greater perhaps than can be found in any 

 other we have in Britain. There was an old Aurelian of London, so 

 highly delighted at the inimitable flight of Camilla, that, long after 

 he was unable to pursue her, he used to go to the woods, and sit 

 down on a stile, for the sole purpose of feasting his eyes with her 

 fascinating evolutions" {Haworth ; Lep. I rit. i. 30). 



" In its beautiful flight, when it skims aloft, it rivals the Purple 

 I'Lmperor, which it strongly resembles in appearance. It seems, 

 however (unlike the latter), to avoid the sunbeams, for it fre- 

 quents the glades of woods, where it rapidly insinuates itself by 

 the most beautiful evolutions and placid flight through the tall 

 underwood on each side the glades, ap[)earing and disappearing like 

 so many little fairies " {Rev. Revett Sheppard, of Wrabness, V.M. 

 .21). 



" For the first time in my life I saw this beautiful butterfly near 

 Colchester last July [1836], and its elegant appearance when on the 

 wing will not soon be effaced from my mind. It is vain to try to 

 describe it" i^Edivard Doubleday ; Ent. Mag. iv. 231). 



"Z. sibylla is only found when the 'slop,' or underwood is high, 

 and a considerable clearance in a small wood means sometimes the 

 all but total extermination of the species in that particular wood ; 

 but colonists from neighbouring woods soon restore the balance, so 



