LARGE TORTOISESHELL BUTTERFLY. 53 



were in most instances eaten down to the central rib. Of 

 seventeen or more leaves on the longer twig there were only 

 four with a fair supply of green remaining. Towards the end 

 of the longest twig, amongst the stripped and curled mid-ribs, 

 were many cast caterpillar-skins with some web, giving a good 

 example of the habit of the caterpillars living in company in 

 a common web until near full growth. The cast, skins showed 

 successive moults of the larvae, and also showed the difference 

 in colour with advance of age. The small cast skins were 

 black or blackish, and most of these had the branched spines 

 of a black tint ; but in some instances the spine was tawny 

 or of an ochre colour tipped with black, as in the adult larvae. 

 In all the specimens which I examined the heads were set 

 with short, black, blunt points. 



On the shorter twig was a patch of about an inch in length 

 by a quarter of an inch in breadth of empty egg-shells. These 

 egg-shells were mere whitish films, globular below and open 

 above, with about six ribs running some way from the top 

 down the sides of the miniature bowl. The eggs were fastened 

 to the twig in about eleven longitudinal rows, the greatest 

 number in one row being about thirty-three eggs. 



Of the caterpillars sent me, some turned to chrysalis state 

 on the journey, but in the case of one, of which I was able to 

 watch the transformation, the tints were very beautiful. The 

 figure (p. 51) shows the shape and the notched ridge running 

 along the centre of the back ; on each side of the back, 

 excepting near the thorax, was a row of tubercles, yellow at 

 the extremity and ringed with black. At the thoracic end of 

 this row of tubercles they are replaced by three spots on each 

 side, which at first are very conspicuous from their white 

 mother-of-pearl-like lustre, contrasting with the reddish sur- 

 rounding colouring. These six bright spots (three on each 

 side of the chrysalis) gradually changed in tint, until on the 

 29th of June they were altering to a golden, and thence to a 

 reddish tint. In the first colouring, the abdomen was mainly 

 of an ochrey tint, grizzled with black above ; the thorax much 

 redder, as also the elevations above the wings. My specimens, 

 probably from injury on the journey or in early stage, did not 

 develop ; but on the 28th of July Mr. Gibb forwarded me a 

 perfectly developed sample of the V. ijolychloros, about two 

 and a half inches in expanse of the wings, developed from 

 his own chrysalids. Thus, including specimens of Large 

 Tortoiseshell Butterfly which had been observed previously in 

 the spring and seen by Mr. Gibb, we have a complete observa- 

 tion of the whole life-history of the infestation in one locality. 



The attack was mentioned as having been very great in the 

 neighbourhood on Elm and other trees. 



