36 



BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



adorned with black spots ; the underside of 

 the hind wings is tesselated with red-brown, 

 yellow, and silver spots ; the silver spots are 

 nine in number, the largest and longest of 

 which is central ; there is one close to the 

 body, near the base of the wing, and there 

 are seven semicircular ones forming a con- 

 tinuous series round the hind margin. 



LIFE HISTORY. The females may be ob- 

 served during the months of May and June 

 busily employed in examining the leaves of tlie 

 dog-violet ( Viola canina), for the purpose of 

 selecting one exactly adapted to their taste for 

 the deposi tion of their eggs. The EGG has been 

 observed by many entomologists ; but I have 

 never had the good fortune to possess one, and 

 therefore adopt the description lately pub- 

 lished by Mr. Buckler, who, in describing the 

 egg, says it is " of a blunt conical shape, with 

 its lower surface, which adheres to the leaf, 

 flattened ; its sides are ribbed : at first it is of 

 a dull greenish yellow colour, becoming after- 

 wards brownish. Towards the end of June 

 the CATERPILLAR is hatched, then being of a 

 pale greenish tint; after its first moult it 

 becomes browner green, and about the middle 

 of July attaches itself to the stem of the plant, 

 and ceases to feed." Mr. Buckler failed in 

 keeping the caterpillar through the winter, 

 but delayed the hybernation of one individual 

 until the end of July by keeping it in a hot 

 sunny window : "it was then half an inch 

 long, black and spiny, with a faint indication 

 of a dull whitish stripe along the sides above 

 the feet." At this stage the caterpillar was 

 killed by mould, and Mr. Buckler's observa- 

 tions unhappily terminated. On the 9th of 

 April, 1868, through the kindness of Mr. G. F. 

 Mathew, of H.M.S. "Britannia," I received 

 a supply of full-grown caterpillars feeding on 

 the leaves of the dog-violet ( Viola canina), 

 and have thus enjoyed the opportunity of 

 making a careful description. Mr. Mathew 

 informs me they are by no means easy to find ; 

 they are seldom to be seen on their food-plant, 

 but generally on a dead leaf in its immediate 

 neighbourhood or a twig above it. They are 

 lively and fred freely when the sun is on them ; 

 but they v . . e Eiowiy and feed sparingly 



when the weather is dull, and at night they 

 are motionless and abstain from food alto- 

 gether. The full-fed caterpillar rolls in a ring 

 when annoyed, but very soon unrolls, and 

 crawls with considerable rapidity to a place of 

 supposed safety : the head is almost exactly 

 of the same width as the second segment, 

 rough and bristly ; the face is flattish and the 

 crown notched : the body is obese, and the seg- 

 mental divisions are marked with considerable 

 distinctness ; the second segment has two 

 dorsal spines directed forwards ; between the 

 second and third segments there is a lateral 

 spine directed outwards ; on the third segment 

 are two dorsal spines nearly erect; between 

 the third and fourth segments is a lateral 

 spine directed outwards ; on the fourth seg- 

 ment are two dorsal spines nearly erect ; the 

 fifth and following segments, as far as the 

 twelfth inclusive, have six spines each two 

 dorsal, and two on each side lateral ; the thir- 

 teenth segment has four spines directed back- 

 wards ; all the spines are rough and uneven, 

 especially towards the tip, and are beset with 

 strong bristles ; there is no medio-dorsal series 

 of spines, but the dorsal spines constitute two 

 series of eleven each. The colour of the head 

 is black, the two dorsal series of spines are 

 gamboge-yellow at the base and black at the 

 tip ; the body is black, very slightly sprinkled 

 on the back with white dots, and having a 

 vague but broad pale stripe on each side, com- 

 posed of irregular bluish white markings, more 

 or less closely crowded, and each generally 

 having a median black dot : this stripe is 

 often intersected by a slender sinuous black 

 line : the legs are black, the belly and claspers 

 pitchy red. On the 17th of April my speci- 

 mens spun little silken pads on the grass, and 

 from these suspended themselves in the usual 

 manner and became chrysalids. The CHRYSA- 

 LIS is obese, the head obtusely eared, the 

 thorax broadly keeled, the wing-cases ample, 

 the anal extremity rather abruptly incurved, 

 almost reaching the end of the wing-cases, 

 bluut, and terminating in two nearly circular 

 disks, which are fringed with very numerous 

 minute hooks; the dorsal surface has two warts 

 on every segment as far as the eleventh inclu- 



