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which the fulvous ground colour is replaced by a milky drab, and the black 

 spots by fulvous spots. I have also a hermaphrodite, in which the wings on 

 the left hand side are much smaller than those on the right. Like Adippe, 

 it also varies by the enlargement and coalescing of the black spots. 



The egg is very similar to that of Adippe. 



The caterpillar is of a dark shining violet grey, thickly marbled with vel- 

 vety black. It has six rows of black spines, branched, with short black hairs. 

 The spiracles are black, delicately margined with grey, and close below each 

 spiracle is a blotch of bright orange red. The head is black, shining, and 

 hairy. It feeds on the leaves of the dog and the sweet violet ( Viola canina 

 and odorata), and hibernating young, feeds up in the spring. 



The chrysalis is of a shining, blackish brown, with paler markings ; and is 

 very much curved in outline : on the upper surface are two rows of blunt 

 conical projecting points. It is suspended by the tail to the underside of a 

 leaf, the surface of which it covers, when a caterpillar, with a circular mass 

 of silk, thickest in the centre, to which the anal hooks of the chrysalis are 

 attached in a horizontal position, the back of the abdomen being so much 

 curved round towards the leaf as to imitate the upper two-thirds of the 

 letter S- 



The butterfly may be found on the wing in July and August, and frequents 

 the sides of hills, coast sandhills, and heaths. 



It is more generally distributed than Paphia, and is the commonest of the 

 large Fritillaries throughout Europe, and Northern and Western Asia. In 

 Scotland it ranges as far north as Sutherland, and I have met with it in the 

 Isle of Skye. It also appears to be common in Ireland. Some closely 

 allied species are found in California. 



It is figured and described in Moufet's " Insectorum Sine Minimorum 

 Animalium Theatrum," 1633. 



Petiver, in his " Papilionum Brittannise, Icones," &c., 1717, informs us 

 that the Great Silver-spotted Fritillary appears about the midst of July. 



Wilkes, in his " English Moths and Butterflies/' 1773, writes : "On the 

 15th July, 1748, I had three eggs laid, and on the 5th of August the young 

 caterpillars came forth. They were of a flesh colour, with rows of black 

 spots on each joint, like the caterpillars of the Emperor Moth, and out of 

 each spot grew hairs of a sandy colour. The eggs were beautifully fluted 

 down the sides, were flat at the bottom, and had a glutenous mixture upon 

 them, which occasioned their sticking fast wherever the fly chose to leave 

 them. The caterpillars on this present ]0th of February, 1749, seem to be 

 alive, but are very small, and, I believe, have eaten nothing all the winter, 

 though they have had grass given them, which I take to be their proper food." 



