FRITILLARIES, VANE SS AS, PURPLE EMPEROR 171 



Family APATURID^ 

 The Purple Emperor (Apatura Iris] 



This grand insect is the only British member of its family, and 

 richly deserves its popular title. The male, which is figured on 

 Plate V (fig. 1), exhibits a most gorgeous imperial purple, which is 

 reflected at certain angles only from the upper surface of his large 

 and powerful wings. His flight is lofty and vigorous, and among 

 the topmost branches of majestic oaks, where he defies the efforts 

 of would-be capturers. Unlike our other butterflies, he is also a 

 very quarrelsome creature, and will not hesitate to fiercely attack 

 a brother Emperor who dares approach the branch he has selected 

 for his throne. 



Many attempts have been made to capture this prized creature 

 by means of a large net mounted on the end of a pole twenty or 

 thirty feet in length, but the wielding of such a cumbersome imple- 

 ment against so powerful an insect is no mean task, and but few 

 fall a prey to such a snare. But it so happens that this imperial 

 personage has a very depraved appetite, the indulgence in which 

 has often brought him to ruin. Instead of searching out the sweets 

 so bounteously supplied by the blossoms that are so attractive to 

 other lepidopterous insects, he delights in sipping the waters of the 

 filthiest puddles, and imbibing the odoriferous moisture of dung and 

 the decomposing carcases of animals. So deeply seated is this de- 

 pravity of taste that the Emperor may be netted with ease while 

 indulging in his sumptuous feast, and is even to be taken at times 

 with the fingers. 



The knowledge of this peculiarity of the imperial palate has led 

 entomologists to abandon the awkward net, and to bait the woods 

 with viands that alone can entice his highness from his lofty seat ; 

 and many a splendid specimen has been easily captured while 

 enjoying the luxurious juice of a dead cat, stoat, or rabbit, or of a 

 seething mass of pig's dung. 



The female is larger than her mate, and does not display the 

 beautiful purple reflections that adorn the male. She is very 

 different, too, in her habits, for she sits nearly all day on high 

 branches of trees, giving her attention to the graver duties of an 

 imperial mother, and is consequently but seldom seem. She lays 

 her eggs in July on the sallow (Salix Caprea) or the poplar (Popu- 

 liis), and in less than a fortnight the young caterpillars are hatched. 



