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Lewin, in his "British Insects/' 1795, writes "This insect appears on the 

 wing about the 24th of June, and is not uncommon. It frequents the south 

 sides of woods and lanes near them ; and may be readily taken as it is feed- 

 ing on the various flowers then in bloom, before nine o'clock in the morning, 

 after which time, as the sun grows hot, it sports and flys about with great 

 swiftness, frequently settling on the tops and sides of high trees. It is very 

 extraordinary, that, though this fly is an inhabitant of almost every patch of 

 wood in-Englaud, neither the greatest pains taken, nor accident, have yet 

 discovered the caterp'llar. A friend of mine once found two chrysalides, sus- 

 pended by the tail on different parts of a low honeysuckle bush, in a retired 

 part of a wood ; both of which produced fine specimens of this butterfly the 

 latter end of June. The chrysalis, as he described it, was hog-backed, with 

 the resemblance of two rows of knobs on the back, and of a reddish brown 

 colour/' 



Donovan, in his "Natural History/' vol. 8., published in 1799, writes 

 " The White Admirable Butterfly feeds upon the honeysuckle, and is found 

 in the months of June and July, in the skirts of woods ; its habits is much 

 the same as that of the Red Admirable, but it is by no means common. This 

 has hitherto been deemed the PapUio Camilla of Linnaeus, though it differs 

 in a slight degree from the descriptions and figures of authors who describe 

 only German or Swedish specimen of it. In the late editions of the Systema 

 Naturae. Camilla is described with Sibylla, a Papilio nearly allied to it, but 

 which Linnaeus considered as a distinct species ; his description of Camilla 

 expressly saying ' angulis ani rubro.' The angulis ani of Sibylla not being 

 of a real colour, removes it from the English species. Fabricius is of a dif- 

 ferent opinion. We consider the English Admirable as the true Camilla^ and 

 that Sibylla not Camilla is the Austrian species ; it is much darker on the 

 upper surface, and has a row of shining blue spots all round the wings : the 

 base of the posterior wings, beneath silvery and without spots, as Fabricius 

 describes his Camilla. Our insect on the contrary has a row of blue spots 

 on the upper surface, but a red spot at the inner angle of posterior wings ; 

 the base of the lower wings are also silvery beneath, but has black spots upon 

 it. They differ in many other respects : these alone determine them to be 

 two species, and ours to be the Camilla of Linnaeus. We have inspected the 

 drawings of Mr. Jones, from which Fabricius describes most of his Papiliones, 

 and are confirmed in our opinion." 



In his " Lepidoptera Britannica," published in 1803, Harworth writes, 

 " The graceful elegance displayed by this charming species when sailing on 

 the wing, is greater perhaps than can be found in any other we have in 

 Britain. There was an old Aurelian of London, so highly delighted at the 



