102 GREASY FRITILLARY. 



It feeds on the devils-bit scabious, f Scahiosa succisa.J the 

 greater plantain, ( Plant a go major,) and the ribwort plantain, 

 ( Planiago lanceolata.) 



This Fritillary extends across the wings from one inch and 

 a half to two inches: I have two in my collection of exactly 

 these respective measurements. The fore wings are of a dark 

 reddish orange colour, barred cross-wise irregularly with 

 blackish and straw-coloured waved bars or spots; the base of 

 these wings is blackish brown. The hind wings are of a 

 similar red ground colour, their base and inner side blackish 

 brown, with a yellowish orange spot near the former; they are 

 also barred with a bar of dark blackish brown, widest at the 

 lower corner, and in it a row of continuous light orange cream- 

 coloured spots; the ground colour, there apparent as another 

 bar, has a row of black specks in each of its compartments, 

 and this is succeeded by a blackish brown border, edged 

 Avith yellowish grey, and bordered on its inner side with a 

 row of small yellowish orange crescents, each a satellite of 

 the several compartments of the red ground colour. 



Underneath, the fore wings, Avhich have an oiled appearance, 

 whence the common name of the species, are of a much 

 more obscure and dull general colour, the markings from the 

 upper side all, or nearly all, shewing through. The hind 

 wings, of a slightly brighter ground colour, have three yellowish 

 cream-coloured curved bands, margined with thin black lines, 

 the first, near the base, irregular and oblique, with an extension 

 outwardly into the middle, the second, in the middle of the 

 wing, and the third, a (Serics of marginal crescents, between 

 Avhich and the middle one, in the ground colour, is a row 

 of small yellowish cream-coloured spots, with a central dot of 

 black, severally more or less distinct. 



The female resembles the male. 



The caterpillar is spined, black above and yellowish beneath, 

 M'ith a row of small white dots along the back and sides; the 

 spines are black, as is also the head; the legs are reddish 

 brown. 



The chrysalis is suspended, according to M. Harris, between 



