134 LEPIDOPTERA. 



the wing throughout the spring, summer, and autumn in 

 warm sunny weather. 



LAiivA, H inch long, spiny, the spines with many branches. 

 Head rugose, bifid, hairy, larger than the second segment. 

 General colour yellowish, very thickly dusted with black or 

 dark grey, especially on the sides between the dorsal and 

 spiracular lines. Dorsal line black, interrupted. A yellow 

 line above the black spiracles, which are set in yellow rings. 

 iSpines yellowish, tipped with black and interspersed with 

 short hairs ; second segment devoid of spines. Head black, 

 dusted with yellow, and with numerous black hairs ; legs 

 black ; pro-legs and belly greyish-green, dusted with blackish, 

 ventral stripe dark grey. On stinging nettle ( Urtica dioicci). 

 May and July— August, feeding gregarioasly. (Fenn.) 



Pupa rather elongate, head deeply bifid, a short projection 

 from the back of the thorax ; a point at the base of each 

 wing case, and three rows of points in the back of the 

 abdominal segments, placed in a triangular position on each 

 segment. Colour variable, pale yellowish ochreous ; or rosy, 

 dusted with brownish ; sometimes with coppeiy metallic 

 spots at the base of the anterior points, sometimes with the 

 whole thoracic area of an iridescent golden appearance. 

 Suspended by the tail to a wall, paling, or the stem of the 

 food plant. (Fenn.) 



The pupa is a familiar object, hanging to any wall in the 

 outsku'ts of towns, and the dark mass of blackish yellow 

 larvas, congregated on the tops of several contiguous nettles 

 in a large bed, equally so in lanes and waste places. Very 

 careful experiments have been made by Mr. W. H. B. 

 Fletcher, with a view to prolonging the pupa state through 

 the winter, and securing emergence in the spring, but 

 without success. All those of which the emergence was 

 retarded by artificial cold perfected the butterfly, within the 

 pupa, in November or December, and either emerged as 

 cripples or died. A curious circumstance in connection with 



