4& 



BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



Geo. BigneU. Common, but local, fre- 

 quenting healthy spots in woods ; irregular in 

 appearing; occurs some seasons, though rarely, 

 at the end of May, at others beginning of 

 July. In 1855 the writer bred 120 specimens 

 from caterpillars found feeding on Plantago 

 kmceolatum and Teucrium scorodonia. The 

 first passed into the chrysalis condition on 

 June 5th, and the butterfly fame forth on 

 June 28th, making the chrysalis state to 

 occupy three weeks. A good time to capture 

 this species is from the middle to the end of 

 June. Dartmoor Tramway, Leighmoor, north 

 and west, above and below Plymbridge, 

 Shaughbridge, Ivy bridge, Kingsbridge,Totnes, 

 Tavistock, Exeter, Torquay J. J. Reading. 



Essex. Colchester Edward Doubleday ; 

 now restricted to one wood W. H. Harwood. 



Gloucestershire. Guiting Joseph Greene 



Kent. Blean Woods, near Canterbury, 

 ibundant W. 0. Hammond. 



Staffordshire. Burnt Wood J. L. H^g 

 kinson ; abundant in one locality ir South 

 Staffordshire J. Hardy. 



Suffolk Brandeston and Playford Joseph 

 Greene. 



Sussex. Very abundant in Abbot's Wood, 

 near Hailsham E. Jenner I have found 

 Athalia so abundant in Abbot's Wood, that 

 I have had ten in the not at one time. The 

 earliest date is the end of May. They are 

 very fond of resting on low herbage and 

 rushes. There is one spot in the wood where 

 they are unusually numerous C. V. C. 

 Levett. 



Wiltshire. Near Great Bedwyn, Rev. J. 

 W. Lukis T. A. Preston. 



Family 3. ANGLE-WINGS (in science (Vanessidce). 



The caterpillars are spiny, and of uniform 

 thickness throughout ; they are often gre- 

 garious, feeding in large companies, and 

 generally on plants of the natural order 

 Urticacece as formerly constituted. I am 

 aware that some of these plants, as the elm- 

 worts, now form a separate order, under the 

 name of Ulmacece, and others, as the hemp- 

 w>rts. another separate order, u,'?der the name 

 ol Cannabmacece* to which the hop belongs ; 



but our insects disregard these technical 

 alterations, and retain their partiality for 

 this tribe of plants, whatever name they may 

 assume in our systems : some of the species 

 are, however, less restricted in their tastes, 

 and eat a variety of plants. The chrysalids 

 are always angulated r the head always eared, 

 the points sharp and salient ; they are always 

 suspended by the tail. The perfect insect has 

 but four perfect legs, the anterior pair want- 

 ing the claws and being unfitted for walking : 

 the wings are angled, in some species remark- 

 ably so. We have three genera inhabiting 

 Britain Grapta, Vanessa, and Pyramds. 



11. The Comma (Qrapta, C-album). 



11. THE COMMA. The hind margin of all 

 the wings is angled and deeply indented, more 

 remarkably so than in any other English 

 butterfly : the colour of the upper side is 

 sienna-brown with a broad band of redder 

 brown along the hind margin of all the wings : 

 the fore wings have seven darker brown spots, 

 the three largest on the costal margin, and 

 the two smallest on the very centre of the 

 wings : the hind wings have three brown 

 spots near the base, and a band of red-brown 

 spots parallel with the marginal band. The 

 underside is clouded brown, and in the very 

 centre of each hind s *ving is a pure white and 

 very distinct mark, which some say resembles 

 a comma, others compare it to the letter C ; 

 it is somewhat like both of these, and hence 

 the names of White C butterfly, and Comma 

 butterfly. 



Obs. There are three very constant varie- 

 ties observable in the colouring of the under- 

 side of the species, the characteristics of 

 which may be described as repletion, variety, 

 and depletion : in the first the brown is dark, 

 dull, and uniform ; in the second it is richly 

 varied with different shades of brown and 

 metallic green ; and in the third the colour 

 seems partially bleached, and assumes a tinge 

 of fulvous yellow. Mr. Dale, one of our best 

 lepidopterists, regards the first and third of 

 these varieties as a first and second brood. 

 It would be an interesting and noteworthy 

 fact if it could be shown that the generation* 



