184 



BRITISH BUTTERFLIES 



orange and black, and is suspended by anal hooks from a silken 

 carpet which the caterpillar had spun on the leaf of the food 

 plant. 



The Comma {Vanessa C -Album) 



Leaving the Fritillaries, we now come to a genus (Vanessa) 

 that includes seven most beautiful buttertiies, some of which are 

 so common as to be known to almost everybody. 



It will be observed that this genus belongs to the same family 

 as the Fritillaries, and we may therefore expect to tiud that 

 the two groups possess features in common. A slight exami- 

 nation of a few in their different stages will show that this is so. 

 Thus, the perfect insects have only four walking legs, the cater- 

 pillars are all spiny, and the chrysalides are angular. 



There is another feature concerning the chrysalides worth}- of 

 note. Like some ©f the pupse of the Fritillaries, they are adorned more 



or less with brilliant me- 

 tallic spots, sometimes of 

 a rich golden hue, and 

 sometimes resembling 

 burnished silver. Now 

 the word ' chrysalis,' 

 which, as we have already- 

 seen, is derived from a 

 Greek word meaning 

 ' gold,' was originally ap- 

 plied to the pupae of some 

 of the Vanessas, on ac- 

 count of their metallic decorations, but it has since been extended 

 to the pupae of all the Lepidoptera, and also to other orders of 

 insects, even though the greater number of them display no tints 

 of the precious metal. 



Tjie first member for our consideration is the Comma Butterfly, 

 of which an illustration is given in Plate III, fig. 7. No one could 

 mistake this beautiful butterfly for any other British species, for 

 its wings of rich orange brown, with black and dark-brown mark- 

 ings, are so irregularly scalloped on the hind margins that they 

 present a somewhat ragged appearance. Its name is derived 

 from the fact that a white mark something like the letter C, or, 

 as some have it, like a comma, is distinctly painted on the dark 

 brown of the imder side. 



Fig. 75. — The Comma — Under Side. 



