ANGLE-WINGS. 



low down on the plant, and the young CATER- 

 PILLAR emerges therefrom in eight or nine 

 days : it soon draws together the points of the 

 thistle-leaves with a very slight web, more 

 like that of a spider than the usual webs con- 

 cealing Lepidoptera,&nd thus, very imperfectly 

 concealed, it feeds with great voracity, and 

 grows so rapidly as frequently to be full fed 

 in fourteen days, when it rests in a straight 

 position, but falls from its food-pLtnt, forming 

 a compact ring, if annoyed. As the cat erpillar 

 increases in size it ascends towards the flowei- 

 head, leaving its prior domicile, so that half a 

 dozen of these dwellings mav sometimes be 

 found on one plant, but two caterpillars rarely, 

 if ever : the needles or spines of the thistle- 

 leaves always rejected as food, are suspended 

 in the web ; the excrement of the caterpillar 

 is also found abundantly in the web, showing 

 that, in a sanitary point of view, the Painted 

 Lady stands rather low. The head is fully as 

 wide as the second segment, and scabrous ; the 

 crown is bilobed, each lobe emilting several 

 warts and numerous bristles. The body has 

 the segmental divisions clearly marked, and 

 a lateral skinfold not very strongly pro- 

 nounced ; the second segment has numerous 

 short dorsal spines, each of which emits a 

 terminal bristle ; both the third and fourth 

 segments have two longer lateral spines 

 emitting lateral branches; the remaining seg- 

 ments from the fifth to the twelfth, both 

 inclusive, have seven branched spines, one of 

 them mediodovsal and slightly in advance of 

 the rest, the third on each side is on the 

 skinfold : below the skinfold and above each 

 clasper is a conspicuous sesquialterous wart, 

 emitting curved bristles : the thirteenth seg- 

 ment has four spines placed in a quadrangle, 

 the posterior pair larger and more conspicuous 

 than the anterior pair : all parts of the body 

 emit scattered hairs. The colour of the head is 

 dull black ; the dorsal surface of the body is 

 black, the spines paler, with black tips and 

 branches ; the hairs are white ; the skinfold 

 separating the dorsal and ventral surface is 

 yellow ; the ventral surface, legs, and claspers 

 are pitchy red; the spiracles above the skinfold 

 are pale in the middle ; then surrounded with 



Mack, then again with paler. In many in- 

 dividuals the dorsal surface is irrorated witii 

 yellowish white dots, which are more con- 

 spicuously collected ina double series along the 

 back, interrupted by a narrow mediodoi-sal 

 stripe intensely black; in these examples the 

 bulbous base of each spine is pitchy red. When 

 full fed the caterpillar spins a small but dense 

 patch of silkon the surface of any object within 

 reach, and, suspending itself therefrom by 

 means of its anal claspers, changes to a CHRY- 

 SALIS, which has the head broadly truncate, but 

 not eared ; the back of the thorax is produced 

 into a median point, and has a point on each 

 side in advance of the median point, and two 

 more prominent pointson each side on the mar- 

 gin of the wing-cases; the body has three series 

 of obtuse points, the mediodorsal series con- 

 sisting of six points, the lateral series of eight 

 points, the anal extremity produced into a 

 slightly curved beak-Uke process, which is 

 terminated with a frirge of minute hooks, by 

 which it is suspended. The colour is ochreous- 

 gray, striped with dingy-brown, and adorned 

 with gold reflections ; the dorsal points are 

 golden metallic yellow ; there is a spear-shaped 

 black mark between the tips of the wing-cases, 

 apparently covering the extremity of the 

 maxillae ; the cases of the antennae have a 

 double series of black dots ; the anal beak has 

 on each side a conspicuous black stripe, and 

 various parts of the wing-cases and abdomen 

 have distinct black dots. Newman. 



TIME OP APPEARANCE. The caterpillar is 

 to be found in June, the chrysalis in July, 

 and the butterfly in August but the sexes 

 appear to take little notice of each other, and 

 may be seen frequenting gardens, or settling in 

 roads, or on the blossoms of thistles and teazles 

 by the road-side, until the end of October, 

 when they retire to their winter-quarters 

 again to appear in April, May, and June : 

 copulation then takes place, and oviposition 

 follows during eight or ten succeeding days. 



Obs. There is something very exceptional 

 in the conduct of this species; something 

 that renders it impossible to lay down \vith 

 precision any rules for the appearance of either 

 caterpillar or chrysalis ; with regard to uio 



5 



