THE WHITE ADMIRAL. 6l 



the skin then is seen slowly to ascend, exposing the bare and soft 

 shining parts below, from which a flat and forked pair of horns 

 grow out perceptibly as one beholds this wonderful process ; 

 the skin continues to glide slowly upwards, and as the soft 

 parts become exposed, they are seen to swell out laterally, and 

 to assume the very singular projections so characteristic of this 

 chrysalis, the skin of the old head gliding up the belly marks 

 the progress of the disclosure, as the colour of the old and 

 new surfaces is at this time alike, the new being, however, 

 rather more shining and transparent. Occasionally during 

 the bulging out of the soft parts, a kind of convulsive heave 

 or two occurs, but otherwise it remains still until the creature 

 is uncovered as far as the ninth or tenth segment ; it then 

 curves its anal extremity by a sudden twist laterally, and in a 

 moment dexterously withdraws the tip of the anal segment 

 from the larval prolegs by an opening on the back of the skin 

 at that part. At this critical moment one has time to see that 

 the naked shining point is furnished with black hooks, and to 

 apprehend a fall ; but in another moment the pupa has forcibly 

 pressed the curved tip with its hooks against the stem close 

 to the previous attachment of the anal prolegs, and now it is 

 strongly and . firmly fixed. The creature now seems endowed 

 with wonderful power and vigour ; it swings boldly to and fro, 

 and undulates itself as if to gain longer swings, when presently 

 the old skin that remains is seen to burst away and fall off, 

 the chrysalis gradually becoming quiescent, the entire meta- 

 morphosis, from the first waking to the last movement, occupy- 

 ing nearly seven minutes. In sixteen days the perfect insect 

 emerged." 



Linnaeus in 1767 wrote of the sexes of this butterfly as 

 sibylla, or rather sibilla, and Camilla, but, as Kirby points out, 

 three years earlier the same author had given the butterfly the 

 name Camilla. It is probable, therefore, that the latter name 

 will have to be adopted for our butterfly. Certain it is that 



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