157 



VANESSA ANTIOPA. 

 The Camberwell Beauty. 



ANTIOPA, Linn. Antio'pa, the mother of Amphion, who is said to have 

 built the walls of Thebes. 



The arrangement of colours in this butterfly is most remarkable and un-. 

 usual, by reason of the sudden contrast between the whitish border, and the 

 velvet depth of the colours it encloses. The inner portion of all the wings is 

 of a rich purplish chocolate, then comes a band of black, containing six or 

 seven blue spots on each wing, and on the outside is a broad white or 

 yellowish white border : the fore wings have two whitish costal spots beyond 

 the middle. On the underside, the wings are ash brown, with a great many 

 slender transverse black lines, and white margins and spots on the upperside. 

 The width across the wings varies from a little under three inches to three 

 inches and a half. The form of this butterfly that usually occurs in Britain 

 has a whitish border to the wings. This is the variety llygiaa, Hdrch., the 

 type having an ochre yellow border. M. Wurzburger, however, writing to 

 the " Entomologist," "Vol. XX., p. 136, states that when the butterfly leaves 

 the chrysalis, in July, it has a yellow border ; in spring, after hybernation, 

 its border is paler, sometimes light yellow, often quite white : and that the 

 specimens of Antiopa which have sometimes been caught in England have 

 come from the Continent, and are hybernated specimens having white- borders. 

 It may be remarked that the borders of lo also occasionally fade white after 

 hybernatiou. The American variety, Lintueri, Eisch., differs only from the 

 European in the buff border being more irrorated with black dots.. 



The egg appears to be und escribed. 



The caterpillar is black, with a brick red spot on each segment, from the 

 fourth to the eleventh, and black spines. The head and legs are black, clas- 

 pers dull red. It feeds on birch, poplar, and more commonly on willow, 

 especially the white willow (Salix alda), in June and July, but has very 

 seldom been seen in England. 



The chrysalis hangs suspended by the tail. It is of a dark and dingy 

 blackish brown colour, speckled with blue and spotted with tawny ; in form 

 it closely resembles that of Polychloros, except that the spiky points are 

 longer and sharper. 



The butterfly makes its appearance at the latter end of summer, and there 

 is more difficulty perhaps in understanding its irregularities than with any 

 other British species. Sometimes it shows itself in very large numbers as in 

 the years of 1789, 1846, 1872, and 1880, and occurs all over the country; 

 far inland as well as on the coast. Then it will disappear altogether for years, 



