11 



BHITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



species has Lad my especial attention for many 

 years, and the result is a long row of aberra- 

 tions ; one with small red spots on the fore 

 wings, and a broad red band on the hind 

 wings ; one dull brownish ; six without 

 markings on the hind wings ; one very large, 

 with red pencil-like streaks on the rays of the 

 hind wings ; one with one silver fore wiug, 

 all else proper; one with both fore wings 

 silvery, the hind wings proper ; six with all 

 the copper-colour turned to silver one of 

 theee is truly magnificent." Mr. J. A. Clark, 

 of Hackney, has most obligingly placed in my 

 hands some beautiful specimens, varying in 

 the same way. 



LIFE HISTORY. Without that attentive and 

 unremitting obsi rvation which I believe has 

 not hitherto been bestowed on the subject, I 

 am unable to say with anything approaching 

 to certainty whether we have one, two, or 

 three broods of this brilliant little butterfly in 

 the course of the year; its greater abundance 

 at the beginning of June, the beginning of 

 August, and beginning of October, favour the 

 idea that there are three broods ; and it is 

 quite certain that many of those caterpillars 

 which we find during the entire month of 

 August, and which become chrysalids in 

 September, appear as butterflies at the end of 

 that month or beginning of October ; are we 

 to suppose that some of the chrysalids remain 

 in that state throughout the winter, and do 

 not effect their final change until the following 

 summer, so that the October and June flights 

 are really portions of the same brood 1 The 

 EGG is laid on the leaves of several species of 

 dock (Rumex), as R. obtusifolius, ft. pulchtr, 

 R. acetosa, R. acetosella ; and the CATERPILLAR 

 emerges in a few days, not less than ten, and 

 seldom more than fifteen ; it is full-grown in 

 about twenty days, and then rests on the 

 under side of the dock leaf in a flat position, 

 closely appressed to the surface ; if disturbed 

 or annoyed it falls from its food-plant, and 

 assumes acrescentic form, the two extremities 

 approximating, but not meeting ; after a time 

 it resumes its wonted appearance, and glides 

 over the surface of any object on which it 

 may harpen to rest, exactly in the manner of 



a slug, no separate motion of the body or legs 

 being perceptible. The head is Very small, 

 and entirely concealed within the second seg- 

 ment ; the body is formed like that of the 

 familiar multivalve shell known as a Chiton, 

 the divisions of the segments being clearly 

 defined, and the posterior margin of each 

 being curvilinear, and overlapping the anterior 

 margin of the next succeeding segment; the 

 dorsal surface is convex, and sprinkled with 

 numerous extremely minute warts and slender 

 bristles ; the ventral surface is flat, the legs 

 and claspers forming a medio-ventral double 

 series, and each pair being closely approximate 

 and far removed from the margin. The colour 

 of the head is dingy green, with a few dark 

 brown markings; of the body, opaque apple- 

 green, the warts being white and the bristles 

 sienna-brown : in some specimens the green 

 is interrupted by three stripes of a delicate 

 purplish pink, one of them medio-dorsal, the 

 others marginal. When full fed it attaches 

 itself to the under side of the leaf or to a 

 petiole, and undergoes its change to a CHRY- 

 SALIS, which is obese and short ; the body 

 is particularly stout ; the head rounded and 

 without angles or ears ; the anal extremity is 

 also rounded and without points, the extreme 

 tip incurved and furnished with minute hooks, 

 by which it is attached to the web previously 

 spun by the caterpillar ; it is also fastened by 

 a belt round the waist : the entire dorsal 

 surface, and the abdominal portion of the ven- 

 tral surface, are beset with short and stiff 

 bristles, each of which is dilated at the ex- 

 tremity, and has the appearance of a stalked 

 gland, similar to those which occur so com- 

 monly on plants : I do not find any of these 

 processes on the cases of the antennae, legs or 

 wings, but they occur freely on every other 

 part of the chrysalis. The colour is dull pale 

 brown, approaching to putty-colour, and 

 sprinkled or variegated with dark brown, 

 approaching to black : these dark markings 

 are grouped into a medio-dorsal series, almost 

 forming a continuous stripe from the head to 

 the anal extremity ; they also form three 

 lateral series of spots on each side; of these 

 that series nearest the medio-dorsal stripe is 



