4GiJ 



JOUENAL OF HORTICOLTURE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB. 



[ Jane 12, 1873. 



raised aud sent out from Chilwell ; what we have approved 

 and recommended cannot fail to give the utmost satisfaction. 



Of old sorts, Bayard and Douglas Pearson are still favourites, 

 and are likely to hold their po.=itiou for years to come. — Qcintin 

 Seab, Plenslnj Vale, Manxfi,hl. 



THE BEAUTIFUL AND USEFUL INSECTS OF 

 OUR GARDENS.— No. 5. 

 The season of 1872 will stand in entomological annals as 

 rather memorable, because that usually rare and beautiful 

 insect, the Camberwell Beauty, appeared in so many places 

 throughout these islands, and here and there it might almost 

 be said to be numerous — notable in entomological history, 

 ana also a " red-letter " year in indiridual experience, since 

 many collectors actually caught and placed in their cabinets a 

 butterUy they had little or no expectation of ever seeing alive 

 in Britain. Some caught these insects, and some, unfortu- 

 nately, only saw them, and could not secure a specimen, for 

 the species flies both high and strong. The fascinations of 

 iiower-beds sometimes bring this and other wary butterflies 

 within range of the net, but the stroke must be rapid and 

 well aimed. One circumstance which made the appearance of 

 this rare butterfly more remarkable was the unquestionable 

 fact that the year was not at all favourable for most insects of 

 the Lepidopterous order, which were greatly diminished in 

 number by the cold nngenial spring. 



Vanessa Antiopa (Camberwell Beauty 



[V^It may be questioned whether the Camberwell Beauty 

 (Vanessa Antiopa) was ever common in England, as are some 

 of its congeners, not even when many more streams and brooks 

 than we now boast were fringed by shady willows, upon which 

 the caterpillar of the species prefers to feed, though it has 

 been found upon the Birch, and also upon a plant as dissimilar 

 to these as the Nettle (Urtica dioica). It may have been pretty 

 plentiful in the time of the old " Aureliau " Moses Harris. So 

 thinks Mr. Newman, though Lewin states that to his belief 

 none were observed in England between 1748 and 1783. From 

 its appearing in abundance at Camberwell during a few years 

 the insect got its well-known name, and also that of the 

 " Grand Surprise ;" but as far as the former name is con- 

 cerned it might as well have been called the Battersea Beauty, 

 for many specimens were taken there towards the end of the 

 last century, and in adjacent spots in Surrey. "Beauty" and 

 "Battersea" are scarcely associable now, for that district is 

 largely given over to factories and railway lines ; the park 

 alone is a redeeming feature, though scarcely situate in Bat- 

 tersea proper. 



No record of the butterfly's re-appearance last year in these 

 two old haunts has been made, though specimens were taken 

 at Dulwich, and several at Shirley, iu Surrey. One most 

 singular capture was that made on the 23rd of August, when a 

 fine individual flew into a room near Euston Square — not a 

 promising locality for butterfly-catching. Others were ob- 

 served in London suburbs and in the vicinity of various towns, 

 and many more in open places throughout England, and some 

 even in Scotland. If we were to accept the theory so warmly 

 advocated by some, that these butterflies came last year as 

 visitants from Norway, it might lead us to expect that more 

 would occur in North Britain than in the south, which did not 

 prove to be actually the case. The eastern counties of Eng- 



* From Figuier's " Insect World." 



land yielded most, and though a few were seen on the coast, 

 the preponderance occurred inland. 



Vanessa Antiopa is not at all a scarce butterfly in many 

 continental countries, occurring every year with some i-egu- 

 larity. The species occurs iu France, though not so plentifully 

 as in central and northern Europe, and therefore it is not 

 only possible, but most probable, that some individuals may 

 cross the Channel, even if none indulge in a longer flight, in 

 order to reach our shores, though what they should wish to 

 visit us for it is not easy to determine. Entomologists of a 

 past generation used to rely upon the white border as the dis- 

 tinctive mark whereby a true Briton of this species might be 

 at once known ; the continental butterflies, it was assumed, 

 had the margin yellowish. But here we are at sea with regard 

 to the captures of 1872, since some of them had white borders 

 and some yellow : hence, say some, a part of those seen and 

 captured were immigrants, and a part natives ; but this does 

 not satisfactorily clear up the mystery, because both were occa- 

 sionally taken under precisely the same cu'cumstances. Again, 

 it is now asserted that Antiopa in the Scandinavian peninsula 

 and the Alpine regions has usually a white border to its wings. 

 Still further to complicate the matter, one observer states that 

 a butterfly which came under his notice had a yellow border 

 at first, which afterwards turned white. But really the un- 

 questionably fresh condition in which many were taken com- 

 pletely knocks over the supposition that they had just taken a 

 long aerial journey. 



Mr. Newman has justly remarked that the conjecture that 

 the eggs of V. Antiopa, " like the seeds of some vegetables, may 

 occasionally lie dormant for several seasons, and not hatch 

 until some extraordinary but undiscovered coincidences awake 

 them into active life," is baseless, since the eggs of the Vanes- 

 sid;i', and, indeed, of most British butterflies, hatch very 

 speedily. Then, though some moths, as, for instance, such as 

 Eriogaster lauestris, will pass two, three, or even five years iu 

 the pupa state, such cannot be the case with this butterfly, 

 whose life-history gives it the imago state in which to pass the 

 winter. Nor can the mature butterfly have its existence pro- 

 longed many months amid the changes of our variable climate. 

 The opinion of Mr. Barrett comes, seemingly, nearer the mark, 

 for he says that an examination into its history as recorded 

 shows that individuals are seen iu some part of England 

 nearly every year, and as the insect often flies high, others 

 occur that are never seen by entomologists. A sufficient 

 number at any rate occur, as he thinks, to continue the species 

 from year to yeai'. " Most of the young larvfe usually perish 

 from the dampness of the climate, but iu 1872 the extreme 

 heat of the begiuuing of July enabled them to feed up safely." 

 If there is a probability of the British climate becoming drier, 

 as some argue (though recent appearances are not in favour of 

 this), we may yet have this gorgeous butterfly as frequent a 

 visitant to our gardens as are the Peacocks and TortoisesheUs. 



Allusion has been made to the partiaUty shown by V. An- 

 tiopa to flowers, especially those cultivated, and, indeed, no 

 sweet compounds appear to come amiss to the insect, and 

 compounds also sometimes which are far from being sweet. 

 The records of its capture in 1872 throw some hght upon the 

 butterfly's tastes and habits if we throw a few of them to- 

 gether. At Barnsley one was taken August 23rd on a manure 

 heap ; some time in that month one near Chester on cow 

 droppings ; one iu a Peach house, Melbourne Gardens, Derby- 

 shire, August 29th ; three seen in an orchard near Waltham, 

 Lincolnshire ; one on September 14th, at Badenhall, Stafford- 

 shire, flying with other insects about a tree from which sap 

 was exuding by means of the attacks of the larv* of the Goat 

 moth ; thereupon Mr. Boyes reports from Yorkshire that 

 several ef these butterflies came on different days to a garden 

 at Beverley, attracted by the fallen fruit in August, and one 

 was taken at Hull in the highly improper act of sipping from 

 a rum cask. At Old Malton one was taken on a Plum tree. 

 At Oakley, in Suffolk, a butterfly was observed first at the Fig 

 houses and then at the Peach houses, as recorded in this 

 Journal. Though at first frightened off, it returned to the 

 spot and was netted. In a garden at Horsey, in Norfolk, 

 August 29th. Other captures iu or near gardens are re- 

 ported from that and other counties. 



^Vhither do these butterflies go in the winter ? it has been 

 asked. At least a fair proportion survive the ungeuial season, 

 and come forth to deposit eggs in the spring, in the instance 

 of the Vanessidaj. It was therefore hoped that the abundance 

 of Autiopas last year would leave a certain balance of them 

 that, defying bii'ds and entomologists, might continue the 



