BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



preference. Those designed to produce the 

 first brood of caterpillars are deposited in 

 April and May, those for the second brood in 

 July and August : the shape of the EGGS is 

 that of a sugar-loaf, beautifully ribbed longi- 

 tudinally and delicately striated transversely, 

 the number of ribs in the specimens I counted 

 being ten, eleven, and twelve ; the number of 

 striae I believe inconstant ; it is scarcely ever 

 less than thirty, and these, being crowded into 

 so small a space, are, of course, difficult to 

 count : the eggs are attached by the base 

 only, and always on the upper side of the 

 leaf. The young CATERPILLARS of the first 

 brood are hatched about the thirteenth day, 

 and those of the second brood about the tenth 

 day, but this depends very much on tem- 

 perature ; they are often observed eating the 

 eggshell even before quitting it. Until the 

 second change of skin the caterpillars are 

 exactly the colour of the leaf, and semi- 

 transparent ; the hairs are conspicuous, and 

 each has a spherical head like a pin ; indeed, 

 they much resemble so many minute pins 

 stuck into the skin, or still more exactly those 

 minute stalked glands which are commonly 

 observed in the stalks of ferns and other 

 plants. There are a number of white warts on 

 the body much more conspicuous at this early 

 stage than in after life ; these are three in 

 number on each side of each segment in the 

 middle of the body, but not at the ex- 

 tremities. The caterpillars are full-fed in 

 about twenty days, and this also depends on 

 the temperature, which in this climate is 

 proverbially uncertain during the summer 

 season : when full-fed they rest in a perfectly 

 straight position and with the ventral surface 

 closely appressed to the leaf; they crawl with 

 a gliding undulating motion, and, if removed, 

 roll themselves in a ring a position they 

 rarely maintain longer than a few seconds : 

 the head is rather narrower than the second 

 segment, and decidedly narrower than the 

 following segments : the body is cylindrical, 

 but tapers gradually towards both extremities; 

 the incisions between the segments are very 

 indistinct, but each segment is transversely 

 wrinkled or divided into six sections ; both 



the head and body are beset with minute 

 points or warts, each of which emits a short 

 and feeble hair. The colour of the head and 

 dorsal surface of the body is a rather dark 

 glaucous green ; the ventral surface is lighter 

 and more decidedly glaucous. The division 

 between the two tints occurs in the region of 

 the spiracles ; there is a nairow medio-dorsal 

 stripe of gamboge jellow, extending from the 

 head to the commencement of the anal flap; 

 there is also a lateral series of bright yellow 

 spots in pairs, the anterior -spot of each pair is 

 contiguous to a spiracle ; the warts are black, 

 with the exception of three dorsal pairs on 

 each segment, which are white. The CHRY- 

 SALIDS are attached by a belt ami also by 

 minute hooks at the anal extremity ; they are 

 readily to be found thus attached to the wood- 

 work in greenhouses, to wooden frames, walls, 

 trunks of trees, and all manner of out-houses ; 

 the head is very convex beneath, and ter- 

 minates in front in a very sharp point directed 

 forwards ; the thorax is produced into a 

 slender medio-dorsal keel, angulated in the 

 middle ; the sides of the sixth and seventh 

 segments are keeled and angulated, the 

 seventh much more prominently so th.--i the 

 sixth. The following segments have a inedio- 

 dorsal keel very slightly raised on the thir- 

 teenth segment; this is divided, and the 

 divisions spread to the bifid anal extremity. 

 The colour of the chrysalis is very different in 

 different specimens ; the majority are of that 

 pale whitey-browu which I have called putty 

 colour ; some are wainscot-brown ; others red- 

 brown; and others again are delicate green of 

 different shades. The entire surface of the 

 chrysalis is spotted, sprinkled, or striated with 

 black. An ingenious but, I think, futile 

 attempt, has been made to show that the 

 colour of the chrysalis varies with the colour 

 of the object to which it is attached. 



TIME OF APPEARANCE. Summer, from April 

 to August, but especially abundant in May 

 and August : sometimes as abundant as snow- 

 flakes, sometimes scarce. In 16b'8 it was dini- 

 cult to procure a specimen, and this fact was 

 the subject of general observation and of many 

 remarks in the fourth volume of the " F,n\/t>- 



