10 BKITISH BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 



tion on the wall, whilst its wings grow. When first 

 grown they are quite soft and limp, but the butterfly 

 waits quietly till they have attained the proper degree 

 of firmness, and then takes flight, to disport in our 

 gardens and fields, and rejoices the heart of the en- 

 tomologist, as the " first White Butterfly " is a true 

 harbinger of summer. 



To turn now to another common but very beautiful 

 insect, the Peacock Butterfly (Vanessa Jo). In this 

 species, the parent butterfly lives through the winter, 

 and comes out from its retreat in the warm sunny clays 

 of spring, just when the stinging-nettles are putting up 

 their young shoots. The parent butterfly deposits her 

 eggs on the under side of the terminal leaves of one of 

 these shoots, depositing a considerable number (if not 

 her whole store) on a single plant. In the course of a 

 week or two these eggs hatch, and there creep out little 

 black caterpillars. These commence gnawing the under 

 side of the nettle-leaf, and then spin a slight web so as 

 to form a common tent over the whole community ; in 

 a short time they crawl out from this tent, to feed on 

 the adjoining leaves, but whilst they continue small 

 they generally return to the interior of the tent in the 

 evening, and remain there till the following morning. 



These larvae grow rapidly, and cast their skins several 

 times. They completely defoliate a number of stinging- 

 nettles in the vicinity of that on which they were 

 hatched. From the larvae being spiny and black, with 

 numerous very small white dots, when congregated in 

 some numbers on the upper part of a stinging-nettle, 

 they are tolerably conspicuous. When the larvae are 

 quite full fed, they prepare for the final change. For 

 this purpose, each larva seeks some firm object a post, 



