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southern latitudes it is replaced by CattirJioe, which has a range from Tene- 

 riffe to China. In New Zealand it is represented by the beautiful Gonerilla, 

 and in the Sandwich Islands by Tammeamea. Lejeanii supplies its place in 

 Java, as Itea does in Australia. It is common all over the British Isles, 

 inclusive of the Shetlands. Nettles are very much weeds of cultivated 

 ground, and especially are apt to be close to a farmhouse or the out- 

 buildings. It is in such places, therefore, that we should look for the 

 caterpillar or chrysalis, but the butterfly itself is so strong on the wing that 

 distance is little object to it. Indeed the name Atalanta is said to have been 

 selected for it by Linnaeus on account of its great speed on the wing and 

 powers of flight. 



The first in England to figure and describe it was old Mouffet in 1633. 



In Bay's " Historia Insectorum," 1710, we are informed that the Admiral 

 is frequently to be seen in Warwickshire among pear trees, and about Brain- 

 tree in Essex. 



Petiver in 1717, records it as being often seen in fields and gardens. 



Albin, in his " Natural History of English Insects/' published in 1749, 

 gives the following account : " The caterpillars feed on nettles, I found them 

 on the 17th of July in the leaves, folded or spun together; they shelter 

 themselves after this manner that they may be secured from the too great 

 heat of the sun, rain, birds, and a small Ichneumon fly, which often hinder 

 their coming to perfection. I fed them on nettles till the 24th of the same 

 month, at which time the caterpillar hanging itself up by the tail within the 

 folded leaves, changed into a chrysalis, out of which, on the 6th of August, 

 came a most beautiful fly called Papilio major nigricans, alls maculis rubris 

 and albis pulchra illustratis, the Admirable Butterfly. Some of the chrysalides 

 seemed as if gilded with burnished gold ; out of these came a brood of small, 

 but very beautiful Ichneumons." 



Wilkes, in his "English Moths and Butterflies/' 1773, calls it the Ad- 

 mirable Butterfly, and informs us " that the caterpillar turns in August to a 

 chrysalis, hanging perpendicularly downwards by the tail. Fourteen days 

 after the chrysalis is formed, the fly appears. A small Ichneumon fly often, 

 hinders their coming to perfection, by laying its eggs therein, which eggs are 

 of such a glutenous nature, that they stick fast as soon as laid." 



In Harris* "Aurelian," 1775, we read, "The female Admirable is seen 

 to lay her eggs about the latter end of June, disposing of her eggs singly 

 one on a leaf, and at such a distance from each other that sometimes her store 

 of eggs will be extended or distributed over two or three fields. This she 

 does for the more certain security of some of them ; and so careful is she for 

 the safety of her young brood, that I have often perceived her, when about to 



