VANESSA. L99 



the female with the femur and tibia equal in length ; the latter unarmed. Tarsus about the 

 same length as the tibia. First joint more than three times the length of the second, spiny 

 below, beyond the middle ; this and the three following joints armed at the apex with a stout 

 spine on each side, mostly covered by a tuft of hairs at the base of the next joint; second joint 

 spiny below ; third and fourth about one third the length of the second ; the latter shorter than 

 the former, very obliquely truncate at the apex ; fifth joint short, transverse, sometimes scarcely 

 visible from below. 

 Middle and Posterior Leys moderately stout. Femora and tibia? about equal ; the latter spiny 

 without, and laterally within ; the spurs long, robust. Tarsi about as long as the tibia?, spiny 

 laterally, and, except the fifth joint, below; the spines of the lower surface arranged in two 

 nearly regular series. First joint almost four times the length of the second ; third and fourth 

 each gradually shorter ; fifth longer than the second. Claws long, but little curved, grooved 

 below. Paronychia with the inner lacinia wanting, or very short ; the outer as long as the claw, 

 and slender, but little hairy. Pulvillus small, short. 

 Abdomen about two thirds the length of the inner margin of the posterior wing. 



Larva cylindrie ; the head and first thoracic segment unarmed; the rest armed with long 



spines, set with seta? in whorls. 

 Pupa very angular and tuberculate. 



Vanessa is closely allied to the preceding genus, but differs from it in the palpi, which are much less hairy, and of 

 which the last joint is not compressed; and in the form of the wings, which differ especially in not having the inner 

 margin of the anterior pair emarginate. Two species closely approach Polygonia, namely, Vanessa V. allium of Europe, 

 and its American representative Vanessa F. album ; and, independently of their approximation in structure, they have 

 great affinity in the white letter-like mark on the disc of the posterior wings. 



The species now placed in this genus differ in some points of structure; for example, Vanessa Io has the anterior 

 tarsus of the male nearly cylindrie, whilst that of V. Urticse is, as it were, strangulated near the middle, and V. 

 Antiopa offers two strangulations. Again, the anterior tarsi of the females differ in some slight degree; the 

 articulations in Vanessa Io being much more distinct than they arc in V. Urtica? or V. F. album, and the proportions 

 of the joints slightly different. Vanessa V. album and F. album, which approach Polygonia, have the inner lacinia 

 of the paronychia of the middle and posterior legs more developed than the other species, though less so than they are 

 in Polygonia. In colour, too, there is much variation, some species resembling the preceding genus, whilst Vanessa 

 Antiopa, with its rich brown wings bordered with yellow, offers a character almost unique in the diurnal Lepidoptera ; 

 and the same may almost be said of Vanessa Io, which its richly painted wings, faintly imitated in some species of 

 Junonia, render the most beautiful of the butterflies of the northern temperate zone. 



The LARViE differ from those of the preceding genus in wanting the spines on the head. They are more or less 

 gregarious, all those from the same batch of eggs generally remaining together until they arrive at their full growth. 

 Those of Vanessa Urticre and V. Io live on the nettle; those of A'. Polychloros chiefly on the elm and pear tree ; and 

 those of V. Antiopa on the willow, poplar, and elm, generally, I believe, preferring the first of these trees in Europe, 

 and the last in N. America, on the upper branches of which I have seen them in large masses, like the larva? of 

 PvgKra buccphala in England. These larvae, like those of Vanessa Io, are black, with red feet ; but they differ from 

 those of that species in having a series of red blotches on the bark, and in wanting the small wdiite dots dispersed over 

 their whole surface. Those of V. Urtica? are of a dull olivaceous hue. Hiibner figures that of V. V. album as of a 

 yellowish colour, with two lateral black lines bordered on each side with white, and all the abdominal segments marked 

 with a lateral crimson spot. The larva of V. Polychloros is striped longitudinally with fuscous and reddish brown. 



