REDHORNS. 



147 



Gloucestershire. Wootton - under - Edge ; 

 generally to be found every year in the clover 

 fields ; once or twice it has occurred in the 

 greatest profusion, probably introduced with 

 the turnip seed V. It. Perkins ; generally 

 distributed, and sometimes common Joseph 

 Merrin. Mr. Greene, Mr. Wheeler, Mr. 

 Grigg, Mr. Musgrave, and Mr. Hudd write 

 to the same purport. 



Herefordshire. Common in 1858 and 1859 

 Mrs. Hutchinson. 



N"or th u mberland . One specim en was tak en 

 at Whitley J. Hancock. 



Wight, Isle of. It occurs every year in the 

 island in clover fields, but not always in equal 

 abundance : generally common, sometimes 

 abundant James Prlsto. 



51. Brimstone f Rhr>dr>ceraRhimni). The lower figure 

 represents the body of the bntterfly viewed side- 

 ways, showing the curved antennas. 



51. BRIMSTONE. The antennae are short, 

 arched, and gradually thickened towards the 

 tip, which points downwards : the costal 

 margin of the fore wings is straight in the 

 middle, but sharply arched at the base and 

 tip ; each of the wings has one sharp angle ; the 

 fore wings at the tip, the hind wings about the 

 middle of the hind margin. The colour of all 

 the wings is bright canary yellow in the male, 

 pale greenish yellow in the female ; near flie 

 centre of each, wing is a small saffron-coloured 

 spot. 



Varieties. This familiar species is subject 

 to variation of a particular kind : streaks or 

 dashes of vivid orange make their appearance 



in different parts of the wing, and these fre- 

 quently do notcorrespond on the corresponding 

 wings : the colour thus irregularly occurring 

 exactly resembles that which obtains uni- 

 formly on the disk of the wings of the Con- 

 tinental species, Rhodocera Cleopatra. 



LIFE HISTORY. The EGGS are laid singly, 

 about the middle of April, on tbe twigs of th 

 two buckthorns (Rhamnus frangula and ca- 

 tharticus), the only shrubs on which the cater- 

 pillar is known to feed. In the neat hedge- 

 rows so common in this country, composed of a 

 mixed growth of whitethorn, blackthorn, oak, 

 maple, hazel; dogwood, and an occasional 

 plant of buckthorn, it is very interesting to 

 watch the female Brimstone hovering about 

 the hedge, and selecting, with the most un- 

 erring instinct, the twigs of buckthorn, though 

 infinitely rarer than either of the other shrubs, 

 and depositing her eggs on these and these 

 only; the eggs are elongated and of a bright 

 yellow colour ; they hatch in about fourteen 

 days; thus the 1st of May may be considered 

 the earliest day for disclosure, but the periods 

 both of oviposition and of emergence fre- 

 quently extend over three weeks, or even a 

 month, so that during the month of June we 

 find CATERPILLARS varying greatly both in size 

 and age ; nevertheless, generally speaking, the 

 caterpillar is full-grown at the end of June, 

 and then rests in nearly a straight position on 

 the leaves or twigs of the buckthorn. Its 

 head is small, decidedly narrower than the 

 second, and still narrower as compared with 

 the third, fourth, and following segments ; 

 the body is widest at the fourth and fifth 

 segments, and thence gradually tapers to the 

 caudal extremity : it is very convex on the 

 back and transversely wrinkled, slightly 

 dilated at the sides below the spiracles, and 

 rather flattened on the ventral surface ; the 

 transverse wrinkles divide the back into sec- 

 tions, of which every sixth is just double the 

 width of either of the others ; each segment 

 has one wide and five narrow sections. The 

 colour of the dorsal surface of the head and 

 body is dull apple green, much resembling the 

 leaf of its food-plant, but densely covered with 

 extremely minute black warts, each of which 



