104 



WEAVER'S EEITILLARY. 



PURPLE UNDEKWING FRITILLARY. 

 PLATE XLVllI. 



Mditcea Dia, Stephens. Jermyn. Westwood. 



Papilio Dia, Linn^us. Stewart. Turton. 



Argynnis Dia, Ochsenheimer. Hubner. 



Mr. Richard Weaver has taken this rare fly at Sutton Park, near 

 Tamworth, and Mr. Stanley near Alderley, in Clieshire. 



Certain "Malignants" having doubted the former captures, I feel 

 constrained to rescue an honest man's character from the undeserved 

 imputation. In a letter I received from the late Dr. Shirley Palmer, 

 of Tamworth, Warwickshire, dated so recently as the 23rd. of October, 

 1852, he says, "I know not whether you are personally acquainted 

 with that extraordinary man: he possesses the most correct eye for 

 the discrimination of species, of any individual whom I have hitherto 

 met with. On several occasions the poor fellow has experienced rather 

 shabby treatment from the entomologists of London and Paris, and I 

 have had to vindicate him from charges of unblushing falsehood and 

 gross negligence, of which I know him to be utterly incapable. His 

 assertion respecting the capture of any rare insect, if made by himself, 

 may be most implicitly relied on." I formerly, when at Broomsgrove 

 school, knew Mr. Weaver personally myself, as a most successful, 

 because a most indefatigable collector, and the opinion of such a man 

 as the late lamented Dr. Palmer he may well be contented with, should 

 this record of it meet his eye. ' Satis est equites plaudere. ' 



The caterpillar feeds on the sweet-scented violet, ( Viola odorata,) 

 and there are two broods in the year. 



This species measures a little over an inch and a half in the 

 expanse of its wings. The fore wings are of a reddish brown colour, 

 much marked all over with black marks, several near the centre, the 

 base blackish brown, and a row near the outside edge, followed by a 



