198 COMMON BRITISH INSECTS. 



they come back again, and steal quietly to the spot. 

 Should the district be one that is favoured by this 

 insect, very few of the baits will be without a Purple 

 Emperor either settling on them or being at hand ; 

 and, like the Red Admiral, when engaged in taking 

 food, the insect is so absorbed in its occupation that 

 it can be taken without the least difficulty. If the 

 locality be well selected, and the baits judiciously 

 laid, it is very seldom that the entomologist will com- 

 plete his round without having the opportunity of 

 capturing this splendid Butterfly. So successful is this 

 method of capturing the Purple Emperor that one 

 entomologist succeeded in taking eighty specimens in 

 nine days. 



The caterpillar or larva is a very odd-looking 

 creature, the most conspicuous points in which are 

 the two horns with which the head is furnished. It 

 feeds on the sallow, and, when partly grown, assumes 

 so nearly the colour of the leaf that a sharp eye is 

 needed to detect it. There are many markings and 

 shades of colour in the caterpillar which need no 

 notice, the general green hue and the horned head 

 affording characteristics which cannot be mistaken. 

 The perfect insect appears somewhere in July, the 

 precise date depending much on the weather. 



NEXT comes the family of the Satyridae, in which 

 the first pair of legs are not used for walking, the club 

 of the antenna is bqld and abrupt, and the wings are 

 rounded. The larva has no spines, and the pupa is 

 nearly smooth. 



There are several well-known Butterflies belong- 



