44 



BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



the time being longer or shorter according to 

 the weather, they spin a tent, under shelter 

 of which they pass the winter. This tent is 

 very compact and almost of a globular figure, 

 the caterpillars in each mass varying consider- 

 ably in number. I have found between fifty 

 and sixty in a single mass, but in other masses 

 not more than a dozen. The web is very 

 ingeniously constructed, as Mr. Dawson has 

 described ; the blades jt grass, as well as the 

 leaves and flowering stems of the plantain 

 being inwoven, and thus rendering the mass 

 firm and compact. The caterpillars when 

 examined in the winter are about a third of an 

 inch in length, and directly they are disturbed 

 roll up into little balls. In the spring they 

 leave their winter quarters, and then may be 

 seen migrating towards the higher part of the 

 cliff, where they feed on the same species of 

 plantain, but not so much in company, nor 

 have they any longer the protection of a web. 

 When full fed they fall off the food-plant 

 and roll into a tight compact ring if disturbed. 

 The head is distinctly exserted and distinctly 

 notched on the crown. It is hairy, and 

 obviously narrower than all the other seg- 

 ments except the second and thirteenth. The 

 body is obese and slightly decreasing in size at 

 the extremities, the incisions of the segments 

 being distinctly marked. On each segment are 

 eight warts in a transverse series, and each is 

 prolonged into a pointed conical process with 

 rugose surface, and seated in the midst of 

 a fascicle of short stiff radiating bristles. The 

 head is red and shining, its hairs black : the 

 body is intense velvety black, with belts of 

 pure white dots in the incisions between the 

 segments ; its hairs are intensely black ; the 

 legs are pitchy black ; and the claspers dull 

 red. At the end of April it attaches itself 

 by the tail to the stem of the plantain, 

 almost close to the ground, and there changes 

 to a short stout chrysalis, which is of a very 

 dark colour and almost smooth. I have 

 found dozens of the chrysalids in company. 

 The insects remain but a short time in the 

 chrysalis state, rarely more than a fortnight, 

 sometimes less. Newman. 



OF APPEARANCE. The caterpillar 



lives through the winter; the chrysalis is 

 found at the end of April and beginning of 

 May, and the butterfly continues to emerge 

 and appear on the wing during the whole of 

 May and June ; but it is undesirable to define 

 too closely the duration of either state, for 

 when I had the pleasure in 1824, in company 

 wrh my friends, George Waring, of Bristol, 

 and Waring Kidd, of Godalming, of dis- 

 covering the now celebrated locality at the 

 Undei cliff, Isle of Wight, we found the 

 caterpillars, chrysalids, and butterflies equally 

 abundant at the same time. With a feeling 

 of triumph that I well recollect I recorded 

 the discovery of this beautiful butterfly in the 

 pages of " London's Magazine of Natural 

 History," then in the zenith of its glory, now 

 a mere memory of the past. Twenty years 

 later, the Rev. J. F. Dawson sent me a most 

 interesting account of the same butterfly and 

 the same locality, and I will copy his letter 

 here, even at the risk of some little repetition. 

 "As this fritillary is rare in almost every 

 part of the kingdom, some account of its 

 favourite haunts and habits may not prove 

 uninteresting. It cannot be accounted by any 

 means common here, being confined to a few 

 localities only, though where it does occur, it 

 is in general to be found in some abundance. 

 It is not to be expected in cultivated districts, 

 but breeds on steep and broken declivities 

 near the coast, which the scythe or the plough 

 never as yet have invaded, and in such spots 

 it may be met with, earlier or later in May, 

 according to the season. Near Sandown, on 

 the side of the cliff, there is one of these 

 broken declivities, occasioned by some former 

 land-slip, covered with herbage, which slopes 

 down to the beach. A pathway leads to the 

 base. On the 9th of May, 1844, a hot, sunny 

 day, each side of this pathway was completely 

 carpeted with a profusion of the yellow flowers 

 of the common kidney vetch or ladies' fingers 

 (Authyllis vulneraria, var. maritima), when I 

 visited the spot ; and these flowers were the 

 resort of an abundance of these fritillaries, 

 which fluttered about them, or rested on their 

 corollas, expanding and sunning their wings, 

 and presenting a most charming picture of 



