122 THE BOOK OF BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



The White Admiral is, unfortunately, not at all 

 common. It is unknown in Scotland, and indeed in 

 England except in the southern part. It has been taken 

 in Lincolnshire, Suffolk, Essex, and Kent, on the east ; 

 in Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, and 

 in Dorset, on the south ; and in the following inland 

 counties : Surrey, Buckingham, Northampton, Gloucester, 

 and Worcester ; but these should, perhaps, now be 

 narrowed down to Hants and the Isle of Wight, 

 Northants, Suffolk, and Essex. In those localities it may 

 be sought for in the rides and glades in oak-woods, 

 sailing along which its peculiarly graceful flight has 

 always been a subject of delight to the lover of Nature. 

 Like the Fritillaries, it is fond of settling on the bramble- 

 flowers, and may there be taken if the net is handled 

 with the requisite skill. 



The eggs are laid in July, on the upper leaves of the 

 Honeysuckle {Lonicera Periclymenum). The larva comes 

 out in a fortnight, and, after feeding for a time, hiber- 

 nates till the spring. Newman has graphically described 

 how each little larva draws together, to make a winter 

 house, the edges of the leaf on which it has been 

 feeding, having first fastened the leaf to the stem to 

 prevent its falling to the ground in the autumn. In this 

 hammock, which hangs free when the leaf has broken 

 away from the stem, it passes securely through the 

 winter. It begins feeding again in April, and is full-fed 

 by the end of May or beginning of June. The pupa 

 may be found during June, and the imago comes out 

 at the end of it or beginning of July, and is on the 

 wing during the latter month in oak-woods in the 

 southern part of England, as mentioned above. 



The larva (Fig. 126), which is i^in. or more in length, 

 is spinous, but not in the same way as are the larvae 



