52 CHERRY. 



it. The hind wings are tawny or orange red, with only one 

 black blotch on each, and the dark border is varied with blue 

 crescent-shaped markings, as well as by pale colouring forming 

 a kind of irregular line outside them. 



The under sides of the wings are marked transversely with 

 wavy lines, the basal half being thus of a mottled and of a 

 brownish tint, succeeded by a broad greyish band, and this by 

 a dark border at the edge of the wing with a wavy blue band 

 or line of blue crescents at the inner margin ; in the centre of 

 the hind wings is a little white spot. Along rather more than 

 a third of the edge of the fore wings nearest the body (see 

 figure, p. 51) is a row of long strong bristles, which are a marked 

 structural characteristic, by which this Large Tortoiseshell 

 Butterfly may be distinguished from the Small Tortoiseshell 

 Butterfly, Vanessa urtiae, often very common in our gardens, 

 and which greatly resembles the larger species in colour and 

 markings. 



The life-history is that the eggs are laid in May, and in 

 great numbers, on the twigs of the food trees of the cater- 

 pillars, sometimes completely surrounding the twig, so as to 

 form a ring much like that of the Lackey Moth (see figure, 

 p. 21); but, though placed close together, they are stated not 

 to be " embedded " in glue. The caterpillars soon hatch, and 

 live until their last moult in companies, spinning a web- 

 covering for their common use. Their first food appears to 

 consist of the buds and young leaves, and by day they go out 

 to feed, and in the evening return to their web. Their head- 

 quarters are noticeable by the condition of the twigs, which 

 are nearly or quite stri2)ped of leaves, and also by the dirt 

 which, falling down, accumulates in a patch beneath the tree. 



The caterpillars are at first blackish grey, and strongly 

 haired, and presently moult to an ochreous brown colour 

 mixed with black, and beset with numerous branched spines 

 of a yellow or ochre-brown colour, each spine tipped with 

 black (see figure, p. 51). When full-fed they are about two 

 inches in length, and they then disperse, and suspend them- 

 selves by the tail in any convenient place for their change to 

 the chrysalis state, from which the butterfly may be expected 

 to appear in two or three weeks. In this country the butterflies 

 are recorded as developing from the chrysalids about the 

 middle of July, and remaining on the wing for about a month, 

 and then retiring for the winter, reappearing after hibernation 

 (as before mentioned) to lay eggs in the spring. 



The specimens sent me by Mr. Gibb corresponded well with 

 the descriptions of the damage caused by this attack. Of two 

 shoots of Cherry sent me on June 26th — these respectively of 

 about five, and seven and a half inches in length — the leaves 



