CHAPTER III. 



NYMPHALID/C. 



The Fritillaries. 



'HE Fritillaries form a well-defined group of 

 butterflies, which get their name from a 

 resemblance between the chequered mark- 

 ings of their wings and the somewhat 

 similar markings of the flower of one of our 

 wild lilies, Fritillaria Me/eagrts, the Fritillary, or Snake's- 

 head. All the Fritillaries have an orange or orange-brown 

 upper surface, chequered with black, but they fall into 

 two divisions at once when reference is made to the 

 under-surface. One division has silver markings, and 

 the other not : the former constitutes the genus Argynnis, 

 the latter the genus Melitica. The caterpillars are 

 spinous, the pupae suspended by the tail only, and the 

 perfect insects, like the rest of the Nymphalidcc, have 

 only four perfect legs adapted for walking. Another 

 little butterfly, Nemcobius lucina, bearing on the upper 

 surface some resemblance to the Fritillaries, goes by the 

 common name of Duke of Burgundy Fritillary ; it does 

 not, however, belong to the group, and will be described 

 hereafter. 



