224 



INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY 



the bluish-green caterpillar feeds, finally changing to a curiously 

 shaped pupa such as is shown in Fig. 153. 



The Brimstone attracts special notice, for it is usually 

 the first butterfly to appear in the 

 spring. It hibernates in sheltered 

 copses during the winter, and a warm 

 day, even in March, is sufficient to 

 rouse it to activity. It lays its eggs 

 under the leaves of the buckthorn, 

 which form the food of the greenish 

 caterpillar until July, when it pupates. 

 The perfect insect emerges at the end 

 of July or beginning of August, and 



Fig. 153.— Pupa of the 

 Orange Tip Butterfly 

 suspended on a branch 

 of Cuckoo-flower. 



lives right on till the 

 following spring, a 

 period of seven or 

 eight months, which is 

 an unusually long life 

 for a full-grown winged 

 insect. 



The pre- 

 dominant 

 British 

 family of biitterflies is 

 that of the Nympha- 

 lidae, of which the 

 genus Vanessa ( = Pyra^ 

 meis) includes the Red 

 Admiral (V. atalanta), 

 the Painted Lady ( V. 

 cardui), the Peacock 

 {V. lo), and the Tor- 

 toise-shells {V. wrticae 

 and polychloros), a gaily coloured group as the names of its 



Njrmpha- 

 lidae. 



Fig. 154. — Stages in the life of the Peacock 

 Butterfly ( Vanessa lo). 

 A, Caterpillar feeding on nettle ; J?, caterpillar sus- 

 pending itself when about to pupate ; C, sus- 

 pended chrysalis. 



