86 



INSECTS. 



is the Camberwell beauty ( F. antiopa). Its large angular wings are rich brown above, 

 with a broad yellow border, enclosing on its inner margin a row of blue spots. 



In the tropics the place of the preceding genus is taken by Junonia, the 

 members of which are not perhaps so richly coloured as the tortoiseshells. They 

 occur all over Eastern and Southern Asia, and are also found in North and South 

 America, the Oriental countries, and Africa. The caterpillars are spinous, as are 

 those of the two tortoiseshells. A figure of the beautiful, although dark- 

 coloured, Swinhoe's tortoiseshell (J~. 

 swinhoei), is given at the lower left- 

 hand .corner of the coloured Plate. 

 As an example of the genus Pyra- 

 meis, we may take the red admiral 

 (P. atalanta), which is a well-known 

 and richly-coloured British butterfly, 

 appearing in the autumn in woods, 

 and also in orchards where it feeds 

 upon the juices of decaying apples. 

 The large black wings with a scarlet 

 band across the upper, and a margin 

 of the same colour around the lower, 

 together with the group of pure 

 white blotches towards the tip of the 

 former, render it a very conspicuous 

 insect. When, however, the wings 

 are closed, the mottled black and 

 brown render it almost invisible. 

 The larvae are black and spinous, 

 and feed upon the common nettle ; 

 and the species is found all over 

 Europe and North Africa, North and 

 West Asia, and North and Central 

 America. In many other regions its 

 place is taken by some very closely 

 allied forms. In the painted lady 

 (P. cardui), of which the caterpillars 

 feed upon the thistle, the wings 

 are orange -red, black -spot ted, and 



black-tipped, the latter area bearing a group of white spots. It is abundant in 

 almost every country of the world, except the Arctic regions and South America. 

 Nearly allied are the porcelains (Cyrestis), which measure from 2 to 3 inches across 

 the wings, and are found in India, the Malay Archipelago, and a few in West 

 Africa and Madagascar. The sooty-veined porcelain (C. thyodamas) represented on 

 the coloured Plate, No. 3 from the lower right corner, is an inhabitant of 

 Madagascar. Of the genus Limenitis, the large white admiral (L. populi) occurs 

 in Central Europe, South Scandinavia, and Finland, but has not been met with in 

 the British Islands or in Holland. It is nearly twice the size of the English white 



n 



GROUP OP BUTTERFLIES. 



1, Peacock butterfly ; 2, The same just emerged ; 3, The 

 caterpillar ; 4, The chrysalis ; 5, Meadow-brown ; 6, The 

 caterpillar (nat. size). 



