APRIL. 83 



chiefly the small males which are out ; their term of life is 

 short, as all will die with the advent of cold weather, and 

 only the queens will be left to rear next year's brood. But 

 the insect which is most in evidence during this hot weather 

 is the Red Admiral butterfly.* One conies sailing along 

 now, with that peculiar jerky hovering flight which is so 

 characteristic of this fine group of butterflies. It lights 

 upon a flower head, folds up its gorgeously coloured wings 

 so as to expose the large eye-spots on the under side, while 

 it moves rather awkwardly about, as if its body and wings 

 were too heavy for its slender legs. I have been watching 

 one now for the space of five minutes, and have been 

 sin-prised at the number of blossoms it has visited in that 

 short space of time. It has not only tried several marigolds 

 and dahlias, displacing a humble bee from one of the latter, 

 but has three different times visited the same bunch of 

 stock flowers. This is a thing which a bee seldom does. 

 It visits a flower once and tries the nectary, but seldom 

 goes back to it again. Bees work with ordered purpose 

 and intelligence as compared with any other kind of 

 nectar-gathering insect. 



The Red Admiral, as I have called this butterfly, though 

 it is not the same as the insect of that name so well known 

 to English lepidopterists, is said to live in the larval stage 

 only on the nettle. In face of the abundance of the mature 

 insects and the scarcity of nettles, this is a statement 

 requiring verification, and it may be that it is not confined 

 to this food plant, but has merely not been observed on 

 others. The caterpillar joins several leaves together to 

 make its retreat, and is thus very easily overlooked. But 

 it must be much more common than is believed, and it 

 would be an interesting experiment to try rearing some 

 on different food plants. 



IV. 



As the days shorten and the sun gets lower in the north, 

 the ground begins to assume its winter dampness, and the 

 falling leaves and decaying vegetation give a deadened 



* I "ancssa gonerilla. 



