44 WYCOMBE BUTTERFLIES. 
there is comparatively so little trouble attached to it, that no one 
can complain of having no time for it. 
There are seven British species of the genus Vanessa; of these 
three are always common round Wycombe, one is occasionally 
very plentiful and another has been found but a few times; two 
we do not possess at all. I will take them in the order of their 
relative abundance. 
Tur Peacock. V. Jo. There is not the slightest need to de- 
scribe this, as every one has seen it. It is found on the wing 
most plentifully in August and September, but many individuals 
will be seen in the spring; these are not in such good condition, 
having slept away the winter in some snug corner in an outhouse 
or a stack of wood, and now reappear to lay their eggs and then 
to die. ‘The caterpillar is black, sprinkled with very minute 
white dots, and is covered with short branched spines; it feeds 
on the nettle in companies; in 1865 I found them by hundreds in 
Hollow Lane, but they have not been nearly so plentiful this 
summer. 
Tur Smartt TorrorsE-sHetn. V. Urtice. This is a smaller 
butterfly than the last, but very prettily coloured with black, 
orange, blue, and yellow. ‘There are two broods of it every year, 
one in May and June and another in August. They hybernate 
like Jo, and there is an interesting account in the Zoologist, 
p- 5000, of the capture of a hundred of them at Christmas, 1855. 
The larva is of a yellowish grey colour, but the depth of shade 
varies very much, there is a broad dark line down the back, and 
the whole of the body except underneath is covered with spines. 
Tue Rep Apmrraste. V. Atalanta. Thisspecies, known com- 
monly as the Red Admiral, is distinguished at once by the bril- 
liant scarlet bands across its front wings, and a border of the same 
on the hind wings, and surpasses every other British butterfly in 
the combined simplicity and vividness of its colouring. The 
under side is most exquisite, and entirely baffles description. The 
caterpillar feeds on the nettle, and the perfect insect emerges in 
August. 
Tue Pamren Lavy. V. Cardui. This is not nearly so com- 
mon as the former species, and sometimes one is not seen fora 
