FRITILLARIES. 



to LIU* variety, considering it to be a distinct 

 species, says : This butterfly, which is very 

 like the preceding (Aglaia), but distinct and 

 much more beautiful, differs in the following 

 characters : the fore wings have but four 

 instead of five costal liturae on each side, of 

 which two are compound, and not one only, 

 as in Aglaia : the hind wings have nineteen 

 instead of twenty-one silver spots, and of these 

 the three anterior ones are thrice larger than 

 in the preceding ; the middle one has a black 

 spot towards the base. 



LIFE HISTORY. The EGG is laid in August 

 on the dog violet (Viola canina), and the 

 CATERPILLAR emerges in about a fortnight, and 

 begins to feed on the leaves, but does not 

 acquire any considerable size before the 

 autumn, when it retires towards the root of 

 the plant, or conceals itself under dead leaves, 

 and there remains until the following spring, 

 when it again feeds on the leaves of the dog 

 /iolet. The following description is from the 

 pen of Mr. Buckler : 



" When nearly full fed it measures an inch 

 and five-eighths in length, and tapers a little 

 towards the head, and more towards the anal 

 extremity. It has six rows of black spines 

 branched with short black hairs namely, on 

 each side, a sub-dorsal, a lateral, and a sub- 

 spiracular row, except as follows : the second, 

 third, and fourth segments have but sub- 

 dorsal and sub-spiracular rows, or four spines 

 on each segment, the sub-dorsal being rather 

 shorter than the others ; and on the second 

 segment they are simple spines, leaning over 

 the head and curved slightly backward. All 

 the other segments have six spines in the 

 order before mentioned, slanting a little back- 

 wards, and more so on the two last. The 

 head is black, shining, and hairy. The 

 colour of the body a dark, shining, violet- 

 gray, thickly marbled with velvety black ; 

 the gray not very conspicuous, except at the 

 segmental divisions and along the spiracular 

 region, where it forms an undulating inter- 

 rupted line. The slender dorsal line is black, 

 and expands in width near the middle of its 

 course through each segment, and is bordered 

 on each side with a stripe of bright ochreous 



yellow, which expands in width just in ad- 

 vance of the widest part of the black medic- 

 dorsal line ; the spiracles are black, delicately 

 margined with gray, and close bolow each 

 spiracle is a blotch of bright orange-red, con- 

 nected below with a thin line of orange 

 ochreous, that runs bene--tth the lowest row 

 of spines ; the belly and claspers are blackish 

 brown. When eating it keeps advancing with 

 every mouthful until it has got to the end of 

 the leaf, and then quickly walks backwards 

 to the point of commencement and proceeds 

 as before, always making a quick retrograde 

 movement before again eating its way for- 

 ward; and these operations are performed with 

 such rapidity that half a large leaf quickly 

 disappears. When its hunger is appeased it 

 usually retires below the leaves or rests on tlu^ 

 stalks of the plant. It continues to feed until 

 the first or second week in July, when it spini 

 together four or five of the rather large leaves 

 at the top of the plant, forming a kind o( 

 square tent-like enclosure, within which it 

 retires. After the lapse of a week it turns to 

 a CHRYSALIS, suspended by the tail to the 

 underside of a sloping leaf, its surface covered 

 with a circular mass of silk, thickest in the 

 centre, to which the anal hooks of the chry- 

 salis are attached in a horizontal position; the 

 back being so much curved round towards the 

 leaf as to imitate the upper two-th-irds of the 

 letter S. It has a deep depression on the 

 back below the thorax, and a square form 

 towards the head ; the wing-cases are thick, 

 with prominent edges below ; the segmental 

 divisions of the body are well defined, and 

 having on their upper surface two rows of 

 blunt conical projecting points. The colour of 

 wing-cases, head, and thorax is pitchy-black, 

 with some reticulations of brownish-ochreous, 

 visible chiefly at the margins of the wings ; 

 the body has the same ochreous tint mottled 

 with brown ; the prominent cones are blackish 

 with ochreous points; the spiracles are black. 

 Its whole surface is shining, as though highly 

 varnished. " Buckler. 



TIME OF APPEARANCE. The caterpillar 

 lives through the winter ; the chrysalis is ty 

 be found ia June and the butterny in Juij. 



