264 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS. 



principally on the marsh milk-parsley (Selinum pa- 

 lustre), which is undoubtedly the plant to which 

 they are most attached, though in confinement they 

 will feed readily on several species of umbellatae. 



Gonepteryx rhamni.^ Some plants of the red 

 valerian, which grow in my garden, are much visited 

 by brimstone butterflies in the autumn. On a fine 

 bright day in September, they are often covered 

 with these insects, which seem to prefer them to 

 any other. In what the attraction consists I am 

 not aware. 



Pontia cardamines.\ The disproportion of sexes 

 in the orange-tip butterfly is very remarkable. The 

 males may generally be observed in plenty in lanes 

 and meadows, making their appearance with great 

 regularity the first or second week in May ; but the 

 females I have never taken, at least in this neigh- 

 bourhood, more than a very few times : perhaps it is 

 owing to the latter being more inactive, and less fre- 

 quently on wing. 



Vanessa urtica. The tortoise-shell butterfly, 

 and the peacock (V. io)\\, though they hibernate like 

 the rest of the vanessce, are sometimes on wing in the 

 open air on fine days in winter. In December 1843, 

 when the weather was remarkably fine and mild for 

 the season, I observed both those species together 

 flying briskly in the park at Bottisham Hall. Only 

 one or two nights' frost occurred during that month : 



constant succession of individuals during the above period rather 

 than two distinct broods. 



f Steph. Illust. vol. i. p. 8. J Id. vol. i. p. 23. 



Id. p. 43. || Id. p. 44. 



