NYMPHALIDiE. — VANESSA, 45 



Sp. 5. Antiopa. Alts utrinque nigris, limbo posteriori maculisque duabus posticis 

 ad cosiam alhidis scujlavidis. (Exp. alar. 2 unc. 10 lin. — 3 unc. 2 lin.) 



Pa. Antiopa. Linn. u. 716. — Lewin,j>l.\. — Va. Antiopa. tifeph Catal. 



Wings above reddish-black, or purplish, with a broad, velvety-black, posterior 

 band, in which is a series of violet-blue spots (seven or eight on each wing) ; 

 followed by a broad pale border, usually whitish or pale straw-colour • this 

 border is wavetl internally, and minutely speckled with black dots, parti- 

 cularly on the prominent angles of the wing : the anterior wings above have 

 the costal areolet marked with white, with two large white spots near the 

 tip: beneath all the wings are obscure black, with darker waves, with a 

 whitish discoidal spot in the centre of each, and a broad white border on the 

 outer margin : the body and antenna; are brown-black, with the tip of the 

 club rust-coloured : the legs are ochraceous. 



Var. &, With the border of the wings deep yellowish. 



Caterpillar black, with a row of square dorsal spots, and the eight anterior 

 prolegs red. It feeds on willows, birch, and poplar. The chrysalis is 

 dusky, speckled with bluish, and spotted with tawny. The butterfly appears 

 in about fifteen days. 



No insect is more remarkable for the irregularity of its appear- 

 ance * than this. Till about the middle of the last century few speci- 

 mens had been observed ; but about sixty years since it appeared 

 in such prodigious numbers throughout the kingdom, that tJie ento- 

 mologists of that day gave it the appellation of the Grand Surprise. 

 Of late it has again become unfrequent ; the last times, accordino- to 

 Donovan, that it occurred in plenty being 1789 and 1803, a few 

 only having been captured subsequently. At the present day it 

 still appears to occur occasionally throughout England, as Mr. Back- 

 house informs me that it has been found repeatedly near Seaton, 

 Durham — and often floating on the river Tees — and it has been 

 taken also in the counties of Suffolk, Worcestershire, Surry, Nor- 

 folk, Essex, Berkshire, Oxford, Kent, and Cambridge, and I once 

 saw one on a willow near Hertford. 



I have adhered to the name proposed by Linne, as his ortho- 

 graphy is not only sanctioned by high classical authorities, but it is 

 detrimental to the progress of science to alter a name without 

 powerful reasons. 

 C. Anterior wings angulated, posterior rounded and indented : palpi densely 



* In reference to this subject may be noticed the appearance, during the 

 past season, of Thecla Pruni in countless vv/riads near Ripley, in Surry, where 

 in the course of a few minutes I caught nearly two hundred specimens ! An- 

 other fact worthy of recording is, the recent capture of a specimen of the rare 

 t'atocala Fraxini in the neighbourhood of London. 



