130 THE BOOK OF BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



Danais, Fabr. 



D. erippus, Cr. (Black-veined Brown) (Figs. 134 and 

 135), though probably but a visitor from over the 

 Atlantic, is certainly a welcome one, for it is a grand 

 insect, reminding us both by its size and by its appear- 

 ance of those which we are wont to consider as 

 exotics. As a matter of fact, it has a wide geographical 

 range, extending from North Canada to the Amazon, 

 and is evidently of a very accommodating disposition, 

 for we find it naturalised in several parts of Australasia, 

 and in 1876 it made its appearance in England. In 

 that year three were taken in Sussex, one at Poole, and 

 one at Neath in South Wales; in 1881 a male was taken 

 near Maidstone on 2ist September; in 1885 one was 

 taken in Dorset, one at Plymouth, five in Cornwall in 

 September, and one at Ventnor ; in 1886 five were taken 

 one at Swanage in August, one at the Lizard, another 

 at Swanage in September, a male at Bournemouth, and 

 a specimen at Castle Martin, Pembrokeshire. Besides 

 these, one was taken in October, 1886, in Guernsey, and 

 one the same month in Gibraltar, while one had been 

 taken in September of that year at Oporto. In 1887 

 two were captured in September at Worthing, and one 

 at La Vendee in France. 



In St. Louis, U.S.A., the eggs are laid in early May, 

 and the imago appears about mid-June, and again, 

 from a second brood, in October. The females from 

 the latter brood hibernate till spring. Food-plants in 

 America are various species of Asclepias ; perhaps in 

 England the larvae might feed upon the Periwinkle 

 ( Vinca major and V. minor] or the Oleander (Nerium). 



In colour, the handsome larva, whose appearance may 

 be gathered from Fig. 134, is black, white, and yellow. 



