LARGE TORTOISE-SHELL BUTTERFLY. V 



over the tree to any distance ; the larger ones either dropping or 

 descending to lower branches by their gossamer threads. 



" So far as I can see, the tree is now entirely cleared of the pest, 

 and I send two more caterpillars which I picked some days ago, when 

 I sent the others to you. These seem rather sleepy, but whether this 

 dormant state be the natural transition, or brought about by confine- 

 ment, I cannot say, at any rate they have lost their appetites." — 

 (D. D. G.) 



The above sketch agrees very correctly with the recorded life-history 

 of the Great Tortoise-shell Butterfly as given by various writers. The 

 eggs are fastened or gummed in patches, often of from one to two 

 hundred eggs on twigs of their food trees. The caterpillars, which 

 hatch during spring from fchese eggs, live till their last moult in 

 companies, and spin a web-covering for their common use. Their 

 first food consists of the buds and young leaves ; and by day they go 

 out to feed, and in tlie eveniug return to their web. Their head- 

 quarters are noticeable by the condition of the twigs, which are nearly 

 or quite stripped of leaves, and also by the dirt which, falling down, 

 accumulates in a patch beneath the tree. The caterpillars are at first 

 blackish grey, and strongly haired, and presently moult to an ochreous 

 brown colour, mixed with black, and beset with numerous branched 

 spines of a yellow or ochre-brown colour, each spine tipped with 

 black.- When full-fed, they are about two inches in length, and they 

 then disperse, and suspend themselves by the tail in any convenient 

 place for their change to the chrysalis state, from which the butterfly 

 may be expected to appear in two or three weeks.* 



From the specimens sent me by Mr. D. D. Gibb on the 26th of 

 June, I was able to make some notes of the precise nature of the 

 injury which was in progress. Two shoots from the infested Cherry 

 tree were sent me, these, respectively, of about five inches, and seven 

 and a half inches in length, with the leaves in most instances eaten 

 away down to the central rib. Of seventeen or more leaves on the 

 longer twig, there were only four with a fair supply of green remaining. 

 Most of the others were little more than the central rib, now drying up 

 and curled. 



Towards the end of the longest twig amongst the stripped and 

 curled mid-ribs were many cast caterpillar-skins with some web, the 

 collection giving a good example of the habit recorded of this kind of 

 caterpillar living in companies in a common web until near full 

 growth. The cast skins showed successive movilts of the larvffi ; and 



* For more detailed information, from which the above abstract is chiefly taken, 

 see 'Praktische Insektenkunde,' by Dr. E. Li Taschenberg, pt. iii. p, 2; and also 

 ' Die Pflanzenfeinde (Insekten),' by J. H. Kaltenbach, p. 183. 



