FRITILLARIES. 



49 



11; Common Butterfly. Upper side. 



Under side. 



alternate in this manner ; but it would be no 

 anomaly should this prove to be the case. 



Mrs. Hutchinson, of Leominster, who is 

 perhaps better acquainted with this butterfly 

 than any other entomologist in the kingdom, 

 considers the uniformly dark-brown specimens 

 to be females, and the richly varied specimens 

 to be males. Accepting these views as 

 correct, there still remains a little difficulty in 

 the extreme uniformity of colouring in all the 

 fulvous or vernal specimens : these are cer- 

 tainly not all of one sex. 



LIFE HISTORY. The EGG is laid in May by 

 hybernated females on the hop (Humulus 

 lupulus) and red-currant (Ribes rubrum), 

 both in a state of cultivation, and on the 

 elm in the semi-domestic position of a hedge- 

 row. The CATERPILLAR, when full grown, 

 is obese in its form and slow in its move- 

 ments. The head is slightly porrected, 

 scabrous, and furnished with two con- 

 spicuous compound spine-like horns, one of 

 which originates in the upper middle of each 

 lateral plate of the head : these horns are 



quinquefid at the extremity, one division 

 pointing directly forwards, the others ranged 

 round the base of the first and pointing in 

 fourdifferentdirections; the ocelli are crowded 

 together at the mouth, and each stands at the 

 extremity of a short pedicel. The body is 

 very stout ; the second segment is no wider 

 than the head ; the third and following seg- 

 ments are twice that width, and very robust, 

 andthe interstices between them are very deep 

 and clearly defined ; the second segment is 

 without prominent spines, but has several 

 minute bristle-bearing warts ; it is black, with 

 pale red-brown lines ; these are somewhat 

 transversely disposed on the back, but longi- 

 tudinally on the sides ; there are seven rows 

 of strong branched spines on the body ; four 

 of these rows begin on the third segment, the 

 other three, namely, the medio-dorsal and the 

 lowest, on each side, begin on the fifth : the 

 medio-dorsal series consists of eight spines, 

 and each medio-dorsal spine is slightly in 

 advance of that next to it on each side ; the 

 other series consist of eleven spines each ; 

 the twelfth and thirteenth segments have each 

 but two spines. The colour of the face is 

 velvety black, but adorned with many paler 

 markings, two of which, originating on the 

 crown, pass obliquely down the face to each 

 side the clypeus : the general colour of the 

 body is gray, interspersed with red-brown ; 

 there is a broad medio-dorsal stripe of pure 

 white, commencing on the seventh and Ending 

 on the twelfth segment in an obtuse point ; 

 the last segment has also a large white spot on 

 each side : the spiracles are exactly inter- 

 mediate in situation between the second and 

 third lateral series of the spines; they are black 

 and surrounded with white, and the white 

 again with black, and finally the black with 

 red-brown : the space below the spiracles is 

 delicately reticulated with gray; the spines 

 which emanate from the white stripe are also 

 white ; those of the third or lowest lateral 

 series, also those of each series as far as the 

 sixth segment inclusive, are pale brown ; 

 those of the other lateral series from the 

 seventh to the extremity are white at the 

 tips and pale brown at the base : the ventral 



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