50 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



"Wight, Hampshire, near Chatham, at Southend, Essex, 

 and on the Cliffs of the South Coast. 



From its local character, this is of course one of the 

 species that the collector can hardly expect to meet 

 with, except he live in one of the districts given above 

 as its head quarters. In these, however, it is abundant 

 enough, and the first sight of a number of these grand 

 insects on the wing must be enough to gladden the eye 

 of any naturalist. 



This butterfly comes out first in May, and is met 

 with from that time till August. 



THE BKIMSTOKE BUTTERFLY. 



(Gonepteryx Rhamni.) (Plate III. fig. 2.) 



THOUGH one of the commonest of our native butterflies, 

 this, like numberless other very common things, is also 

 one of the loveliest, both in the graceful outline of its 

 wings, and in the lively hue that overspreads their 

 surface ; charms the more to be appreciated, as this 

 insect is one of the few that do not wait for the full 

 bloom of summer ere they condescend to make their 

 appearance, but in the earliest, chill months of spring, 

 and even in the dead winter season, the country rambler 

 is sometimes gladdened by its gay flight; and in fact 

 there is not one winter month that is not occasionally 

 enlivened by this flying flower, when a day of unwonted 

 mildness and sunshine tempts it from its winter retreat. 



Until very recently it had always been stated by en- 

 tomologists, that the Brimstone Butterfly was " double- 

 brooded" (a term meaning that it went through two whole 

 cycles of existence, from the egg to the perfect insect, in 

 one year), one brood appearing in May, and the other in 

 the autumn. 



But it is now established, on very satisfactory evidence, 

 that one brood only is produced, and that, the autumnal 



