HOW TO KNOW THE INSECTS 



By JOHN J WARD 



Author of "Some Nature Bioaraphies," "Peeps into Nature's Ways," etc. 

 Illustrated from Orisinal Photographs by the Author 



CONSPICUOUS INSECTS OF SUMMER-TIME 



THERE are many insects that appear 

 about midsummer which attract 

 observation either by reason of 

 their size, or their brilhant colours, or, 

 in the case of some, by their ugly, per- 

 haps repulsive, appearance, and in this 

 paper I propose to deal with insects of 

 this order. My greatest difficulty is to 

 select from the thousands of common 

 British species those which are most 

 likely to be met with, and which will 

 best serve to instruct in the principles 

 of observation of insect life. Having in 

 my previous contributions described in 

 detail a few examples of insect meta- 

 morphoses and mimicry, as well as some 

 general distinguishing features, I shall 

 probably not go far wrong now if I 

 deal with insects that more or less 

 force themselves on the observation, 

 when they appear at all. 



As butterflies are, perhaps, the most 

 attractive among British insects, we may 

 first consider a very abundant woodland 

 species, the male of which is almost in- 

 variably seen displaying his bright sienna 

 or orange-brown wings along the sunlit 

 glades during July and early August. 

 The insect is shown in the first illustration, 

 and is known as the Silver-washed 

 Fritillary {Argynnis Paphia). It is, how- 

 ever, the female insect that appears in 

 the illustration ; she is more often seen 

 near the ground (the photograph shows 

 her on a stem of clover), occupied with 

 the business of egg-depositing amongst 

 the leaves of the dog violet, and occasion- 

 ally the sweet violet. Her mate flashes 

 his brilliant colours and endeavours to 

 attract her into the sunny open spaces 

 where they can take long and swift 

 flights together, and then feast on the 



nectar from the bramble flowers. Both 

 insects have their wings spotted and 

 marked with black, and the female 

 ver\' much resembles the male, only 

 that her brown colour is not nearly so 

 brilliant. 



In the illustration on page 257 is seen 

 another example, photographed just in 

 the act of climbing a clover stem. It 

 should be observed that the butterfly 

 has only four walking legs, its fore-legs 

 being rudimentary. This little obser- 

 vation at once gives the information that 

 it is one of the Nymphalidce, and also that 

 in its chrysalis stage it was suspended 

 upside down by its tail end, a peculiarity 

 which we previously noted in connection 

 with the White Admiral Butterfly. This 

 is an instance of the use to be made of 

 the details of classification given in a 

 previous paper which, at the time, perhaps, 

 may have seemed a Httle unnecessary. 

 I had better add, however, that if this 

 had been a male butterfly, greater care 

 in arriving at our conclusions would 

 have been needed, as in the family Ery- 

 cinidw the male butterflies have four 

 perfect legs and the females six, and the 

 chrysalides may be raised or suspended ; 

 but as there is only one British repre- 

 sentative of this family, viz. the Duke 

 of Burgundy Butterfly {Ncmeobius Incina), 

 this is a point of importance only to the 

 clever and precise critic who, after his 

 wont, might come down upon me had I 

 not modified my statement. 



The under sides of the wings are green, 

 and, as the illustration indicates, are con- 

 spicuously marked across with wavy 

 bands of silver : hence the insect's popular 

 name. The Silver-washed Fritillary is 

 one of the largest of British butterflies; 



255 



