THE TORTOISESHELL AND ATAI.ANTl. 399 



she liad deposited her eggs. The branch was then restored to its 

 place in the tree, as nearl}^ as could be done. The Butteifly at 

 once saw and recognised it, j^roceeded to the same leaf, and 

 deposited more eggs upon it. 



The Small Tortoiseshell, or Common Tortoisesiiell (Va- 

 nessa urticw), is coloured much like the preceding insect, but 

 the hues are rather brighter, and the whole pattern of the 

 wings defined more clearly, and looking more compressed. It 

 is too familiar to need any detailed description. The cater- 

 pillar feeds on the common stinging-nettle, and may be found in 

 great numbers upon it, sometimes being so numerous as to 

 blacken it with the caterpillars clustering upon the leaves, 

 which are dra^vn togetlier with the silken threads spun by the 

 larvae. The pupa is suspended by the tail, and is very angular. 

 Its colour is brown, mottled and spotted with black, and 

 having several patches of a brilliant gold, as if burnished gold 

 leaf had been laid upon it. This beautiful colouring has given 

 to the pupa the name of Chrysalis, this being a Greek word, 

 signifying anything that is gilded. The golden hue is un- 

 fortunately very transient, and vanishes as soon as the Butterfly 

 has emerged from the pupal envelope. 



The splendid, and fortunately common, insect, the Ret 

 Admiral (^Vanessa atalanta), a figure of which is given on 

 Plate XIII. Fig. 2, comes next in order. This Butterfly can be 

 at once recognised by the broad scarlet band near the upper 

 wings and along the edge of the lower wings, a bold and con- 

 spicuous style of colouring possessed by no other British insect. 

 The ground-colour of the wings is velvet-black, diversified with 

 some large white spots on the tips of the upper pair of wings, 

 and an oval blue spot on the anal angle of the lower pair. It is 

 easy enough to describe the markings of the upper surface, but 

 those of the lower surface are almost beyond description. 

 Suffice it to say that the colour of the first pair is much like 

 that of the upper surface, only paler ; while the under surface 

 of the lower wings exhibits a most complicated mottling of 

 brown, grey, blue, green, ochre, and black, arranged in a 

 marvellously artistic manner, and forming a series of definite, 

 but complicated patterns. 



If this beautiful Butterfly were only rare, it would be the 



