nymphalid;e. — vani:ss\. 41 



resembling a beak, thickly clothed with scales and liair, three jointed, the 

 basal joint short, curved upwards, second long, attenuated at the apex, third 

 as long as the basal, somewhat acicular : antcuiicE with an abrupt, subcylindric, 

 short club : wings more or less angulated at the hinder margin : pusten'or 

 very hairy above, towards the inner edge : anterior legs imperfect, very hairy, 

 resembling a tippet : tarsi apparently with large double nails, or furnished 

 with an unguiforni process in adilition to the claws : eyes very pubescent. 

 Caterpillar with long dentate spines, the first segment unanned. ChrysaUs 

 very angular, with the head strongly bituberculated ; usually adorned with 

 metaUic spots. 



The genus Vanessa contains the most vigorous and active of the 

 British papilionaceous insects, which are no less distinguished by 

 their boldness than by their superior size and the gaiety of their 

 colours: — their angulated anterior wings at once distinguish the 

 typical species from the Cynthise, but the form of the club of tiie 

 antennie, and the difference in the structure of the palpi, as well as 

 the dissimilar armature of the larvje, and more angular form of the 

 pupse, appear to demand the separation of the latter genus from the 

 present. It is with reluctance that I retain C. album and Atalanta 

 in the genus, as the structure of their palpi and the form of their 

 wings are decidedly unlike that of the typical species, and their 

 habits are slightly dissimilar ; but, for reasons formerly related, I 

 shall consider them merely as constituting sections. All the species 

 hybernate. 



(Pa. Levana, Linne, evidently belongs to a genus distinct either from Vanessa 

 or Cynthia : but from the rotundity of the anterior wngs, combined with 

 the anastomosing colouring of all the wings beneath, I have placed it in the 

 latter genus, notwithstanding the armed neck and gregarious habits of the 

 larva. I may here remark that the attention of entomologists does not appear 

 sufficiently aUve to the advantages resulting from the valuable subsidiary 

 character derived from colour, which the recent observations of zoologists 

 have satisfactorily proved is of more importance in pointing out groups than 

 usually supposed '. I do not, however, wish to lay too much stress upon such a 

 precarious cUagnostic, but merely throw out the hint that future observers may 

 pronounce upon its merits, previously observing, that a very transient glimpse 

 of a naturally arranged collection of lepidopterous insects clearly exhibits the 

 prevalence of particular colours in each group, and the gradual manner in 

 which they are blended in the conterminous genera.) 



A. Anterior wings narrow, irregularly sinuated ; posterior dentate, with a short 

 tail : palpi densely clothed with scales, with a few short hairs. Caterpillar 

 with the head bituberculate, gregarious. 



• Vide Vigor's Obs. on Psittacus. Zool. Joum. r. ii. p. tS, Sic 

 Haustellata. Vol. I. 1st NovExMber, 1827. g 



