NYMPHALIDjE. 131 



thenshire, but probably has occurred, at some period, in every 

 English and Welsh county. The records for Lancashire, Cum- 

 berland, Durham, and Northumberland are few; but in Scot- 

 land casual specimens have been taken in the Tweed and 

 Clyde districts, in Aberdeenshire, and at South Knapdale, 

 Argyllshire. In Ireland probably only a casual visitor ; Mr. 

 E. Bircliall saw one in the county Galway in 18G1, and I know 

 of no other reliable record. A statement in Science Gossip 

 in 1871. that a large brood had appeared suddenly in a 

 garden at Limerick in July of that year, referred, in all 

 probabUity, to V. urticce. 



Abroad it is common in Central and Southern Europe, 

 and is sometimes extremely mischievous, from its habit, there, 

 of feeding on cherry and other fruit trees. It also inhabits 

 Armenia, Siberia, and Asia Minor. 



3. V. urticse, L. — Expanse 2 to 2| inches. Orange-red, 

 spotted with black, and with yellow blotches near the costa 

 and anal angle. Hind wings half black. Borders spotted 

 with blue. 



Hind margins of all the wings very slightly scalloped, fore 

 wings with a blunt projection below the apex ; another at the 

 middle of the hind margin of the hind wings. Orange-red ; 

 fore wings with the costal margin blackish, broadly so at the 

 base, and crossed by numerous slender, wavy, yellow and 

 bluish lines. Along the same margin, and touching it, are 

 three large, somewhat squared, black spots, the intervening 

 spaces being yellow, and the following space bluish-white. 

 On the dorsal margin is another large black spot, and two 

 small ones lie in the middle of the wing. The base of the 

 wing is blackish suffused with golden, and a black band lies 

 along the hind margin, containing two slender, interrupted 

 yellowish lines, and a row of narrow blue crescent-like spots. 

 Near the anal angle is a yellowish cloudy spot. 



Hind wings black to the middle, then orange-red, shading 

 off to yellow at the tostal margin, and having a similar hind- 



