38 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



COMMA BUTTERFLY. 



this section of the genus in Europe, but in North America there are several, all very similar to 

 the insect we have just described. Although local, the Comma is not unfrequently met with in many 

 parts of England, but it is the least common of the British species of Vanessa, except the large 

 chocolate-coloured, yellowish-bordered Camberwell Beauty ( Vanessa antiopa), which, although 



abundant in America, as well as in many parts of Europe, is 

 a great rarity in England, but like many other Butterflies is met 

 with much more frequently in some years than in others. 



It has lately been noticed by various observers that the Small 

 Tortoiseshell and Peacock Butterflies (Vanessa urticas and V. io) 

 have the power of stridulating, or producing a sound which has 

 been compared to the friction of sandpaper. The credit of dis- 

 covering the apparatus which causes the sound is due to Mr. A. H. 

 Swinton. The hinder vein of the fore wings is bare of scales at 

 the base beneath, and serrated, and this works upon the front vein 

 (or costal vein, as it is called) of the hind wings, which is likewise 

 bare, smooth, and curved outwards at the base. 

 The elegant brick-red, or pale salmon-coloured Painted Lady Butterfly (Pyrameis cardui), is the 

 last European species of this group which we shall notice. The caterpillar feeds on thistle, and 

 the Butterfly is generally common in waste places at the end of summer, not in England only, but 

 over a great part of the world. It is much com- 

 moner in some years than in others, and is occa- 

 sionally sufficiently numerous to migrate in vast 

 swarms from one district to another. 



Among the commonest and most widely dis- 

 tributed of the exotic Butterflies allied to Vanessa 

 are those of the genus Junonia. A s now restricted, 

 it includes several species with smooth eyes (those 

 of the Vanessce are hairy), and with slightly 

 dentated wings. They are insects about the 

 size of the Vanessa urticce, and the wings are 

 black, brown, or grey, generally adorned with 

 two eyes on the hind wings, and one towards the 

 hinder angle of the fore wings. Several species 



are common in every collection of insects from the East Indies. J. laomedia is of a slightly iridescent 

 grey, with transverse zigzag brownish lines, and a row of rather small eyes beyond the middle, of 

 which two towards the tip, and one cowards the hinder angle of each wing, are more distinct than 

 the others, and consist of an outer brown ring, an inner grey or buff one, and a black pupil surrounded 



with orange. Although the East Indies form the head-quarters 

 of the genus Junonia, several species closely allied to the Indian 

 ones are met with in Africa and America. 



The genus Precis, formerly included in Junonia, comprises 

 many beautiful African Butterflies, and one or two Indian 

 species also. The wings are generally dentated, the fore wings 

 more or less angulated, and occasionally almost hooked, and the 

 hind wings often produced at the anal angle. Instead of large 

 eyes on the wings, as in Junonia, there is sometimes a marginal 

 row of small ones on the hind wings. The beautiful blue P. 

 rhadatna of Madagascar, however, has eyes placed as in Junonia. 

 The species of Precis are generally brown, sometimes almost without paler markings, but more 

 frequently banded with some shade of fulvous, and occasionally with blue or red. 



The genus Kallima is one of the most remarkable of the Nymphalince, from the extra- 

 ordinary resemblance of the under surface of the insect to a dead leaf. The Indian species are 

 nearly four inches in expanse, bluish or purplish above, with a small transparent spot in the middle 



CAMBERWELL BEAUTY. 



SMALL TORTOISESHELL BUTTERFLY. 



