CLOUDED YELLOW BUTTERFLY. 



27 



The butterflies vary much both in size and colouring. The spread 

 of the fore wings may be given generally as from one and a half to two 

 inches, but it may be less, or may run to as much as two and a quarter 

 inches, or even more. The colouring of the wings cannot be better 

 described shortly than in the words of Mr. Stainton : — " Deep rich 

 yellow, with a broad black margin, which is spotted in the female, 

 veined in the male. There is a constant variety of the female, which 

 has the ground colour of the wings dull greenish yellow." There is a 

 black spot in the centre of the fore wings, and in the centre of the hind 

 wings an orange spot of variable size and depth of colour. 



There is, however, much variety in tint and depth of colour 

 between the full deep yellow and the above-mentioned pale greenish 

 variety, sometimes distinguished as hclicc Also there are differences 

 in depth of tint of the black border, and amount to which this may be 

 spotted in the fore wings of the female. The figure at p. 20 is from a 

 male taken near Ilaslemere, Surrey, during the past season. 



Notes are given by various observers of deposit of the egg, and sub- 

 sequent growth of the caterpillar, being watched on various of the 

 Lrtjuminosic, as Tn'foliiim repens, " Dutch Clover" ; Lotus corniculatus, 

 Birdsfoot Trefoil ; and Medicaz/o sativa, Lucerne. The eggs are 

 described as oval, pointed at each end, and placed upright, that is, 

 fixed by one end on the surface of the leaf ; the colour, at first 

 yellowish white, changing through various shades of yellow, orange, 

 red, or other tints variously reported by various observers. The time 

 elapsing between egg deposit and hatching out of the larvae varied in 

 duration from about six to as mu^ch, in one instance, as twelve days ; 

 the eggs w^ere noted in the observations of Mr. Buckler as being laid 

 in successive batches, chiefly on fine sunny days, and the whole 

 number amounting, in the instance where they were counted, to over 

 150, even before the butterfly had ceased laying. 



The young caterpillars are usually described as green, but are 

 stated by Mr. Buckler to be pale brown, or pinkish brown, on first 

 emergence, which variation would account for the different tints noted 

 as assumed by the egg before hatching. The colour afterwards remains 

 green, dark, or dotted with very minute black points, each bearing a 

 hair, the caterpillar, as it advances to maturity, having a white or 

 yellow stripe along the line of the spiracles on each side. The cater- 

 pillars turned to the pupal state after a feeding time noted, in one 

 instance, as from June 14th to July 7th, in another from June 24th to 

 July IGth ; but in a series of observations taken later in the year by 

 Miss Sotheby, the larva) which hatched on the 24th of August did not 

 go through their final moult until after a longer period, not till Oct. 

 7tli, this giving a duration of 43 days, instead of the 22 or 23 days of 

 the summer duration of feeding time ; and to this must be added that 



