398 INSECTS AT HOME. 



White. C. These names are given to the insect because on tlie 

 under j^uitace of the lower wings there is a curved mark, very 

 much like the letter C in shape, and of the purest white. 

 There is not the least difficulty in identifying this insect, even 

 without taking the trouble to inspect the under surface, for 

 both pairs of wings are so deeply scalloped that there is no 

 possibility of mistake. The upper surface of the wings is warm 

 red-brown, mottled with black, both the ground hue and the 

 markings being subject to considerable variation. 



This is considered to be an inland species. In those places 

 which it frequents it is common enough. I have taken many 

 specimens in Bagley Wood, near Oxford, in the days when that 

 beautiful little wood was one of the finest insect preserves in 

 England. 



The larva is known to feed on the elm, the hop, and the 

 currant, and in the midland counties is said to be common in 

 the hop-growing districts. It is a thick spine-bearing larva, 

 grey in colour, mottled with chestnut, and having a white 

 stripe along part of its back. The perfect insect appears in 

 the beginning of autumn. 



Next we come to the Gtreat Tortoiseshell ( Vanessa poly- 

 chloros\ which is drawn on Plate XIII. Fig. 1. 



This handsome insect is well named, as its rich mottlings of 

 black and warm chestnut-brown bear no small resemblance to 

 the colours of the tortoiseshell. In some parts of England 

 this species is tolerably common, while in others it is never 

 found. The first specimen that I ever took I saw in the 

 window of a grocer's shop at Oxford, one of the very last places 

 where one might have expected such a Butterfly to be found. 

 It was quite plentiful in Bagley Wood, where any number 

 could have been taken, and had evidently been blown into the 

 streets and then attracted by the sugar in the window. 



It is common in Kent. Lieut.-Col. C. J. Cox, who has given 

 great attention to this insect, told me an anecdote of the mode 

 in which it deposits its eggs. He watched a female deposit an 

 egg or two on a leaf, and, wishing to rear the insect from the 

 egg, he cut off the branch and removed it. The Butterfly, 

 however, continued to fly up and down near the spot, and 

 refused to leave it, evidently searching for the leaf on which 



