9 



According to Moses Harris, the female lays her eggs on the whitethorn, 

 about the latter end of June, and the young caterpillars, as soon as hatched 

 from the eggs, enclose themselves in a slight web, leaving a passage to come 

 out to feed, which they generally do morning and evening, retiring within their 

 web in the middle of the day, to avoid the heat of the sun ; in this manner 

 they feed the remaining part of the warm weather, extending their web as 

 they increase in size. At the approach of winter, they spin a strong web on 

 one of the twigs, wherein they remain without eating during the winter, and 

 come forth again early in the spring, feeding very greedily on the buds and 

 young tender leaves. In preparing for their transformation, they fasten their 

 tail to a twig by a strong white web, after which they carry a strong thread 

 over their back three or four times, near the head ; this is likewise made fast 

 to the twig on each side. In this position they retain the form of the cater- 

 pillar twenty-four hours, and the chrysalis appears, which is of a yellow 

 colour, beautifully streaked and spotted with black. They remain in the 

 chrysalis state twenty-one days. 



This butterfly is unknown as an inhabitant of Ireland, Scotland, or the 

 Isle of Man, and does not occur in the North of England. It is common 

 over the whole of the Continent, and of Europe, penetrating even into the 

 the extreme North, Lapland only excepted. It also occurs in Western Asia, 

 and Siberia, where Pallas saw it flying in such abundance in the environs of 

 Winofka, that he took it at first for flakes of snow. 



This very local English butterfly is briefly described by Dr. Merrett, in his 

 Pinax, 1667 ; by Ray, in 1710; and by Petiver, in 1717, who adds, " It is 

 found in meadows about June." 



It was beautifully figured by Elezar Albin, who in the year 1731, pub- 

 lished at London, his " Insectorium Anglise Naturalis Historia Illustrata," 

 and described it as follows : " The caterpillar a in this plate is black and 

 orange colour on the back, the belly and holders of a pale green ash colour, 

 with a small black spot on each joint ; the head and fore-feet of a deep black. 

 They are commonly found feeding on the Whitethorn at the latter end of 

 April, on which I fed them till the 12th of May, at which time one of them 

 tied itself up by the tail, and cross the middle, and changed into a chrysalis 

 marked b in the copperplate, of a deep yellow marked with black, out of 

 which, the first of June, came Papilio albus venis nigris, the White Butterfly 

 with black veins." 



Of this work, Mr. Haworth writes, in " Transactions of the Entomological 

 Society of London," 1812. " We recollect it to be the most elegant one of 

 its day, and to contain principally, but not exclusively, such lepidopterous 

 insects as the author, or his friends, had reared from the caterpillar state : 



