Insects. 1271 



Habits of Melittea Cinxia. By the Rev. J. F. Dawson. 



As this Fritillary is rare in almost every part of the kingdom, some 

 account of its favorite haunts and habits may not prove uninteresting. 

 It cannot be accounted by any means common here, being confined 

 to a few localities only, though where it does occur, it is in general to 

 be found in some abundance. It is not to be expected in cultivated 

 districts, but breeds on steep and broken declivities near the coast, 

 which the scythe or the plough never as yet have invaded, and in 

 such spots it may be met with earlier or later in May, according to the 

 season. Near Sandown, on the side of the cliff, there is one of these 

 broken declivities, occasioned by some former land-slip, covered with 

 herbage, whieh slopes down to the beach* A pathway leads to the 

 base. On the 9th of May, 1844, a hot, sunny day, each side of this 

 pathway was completely carpeted with a profusion of the yellow flow- 

 ers of Anthyllis Vulneraria (var. maritima), when I visited the spot ; 

 and these flowers were the resort of an abundance of these Fritillaries 

 which fluttered about them, or rested on their corollas, expanding and 

 sunning their wings, and presenting a most charming picture of ento- 

 mological loveliness. The great abundance of the narrow-leaved plan- 

 tain, which also grows there, affords food for their larvae. The spring 

 of last year, on the other hand, was so very backward, that on visiting 

 that locality at a date some fortnight later than the above, so far from 

 either flowers or butterflies being visible, the larvae were still feeding, 

 and I could discover but few chrysalides. These latter are found ad- 

 hering, just above the surface of the ground, to the knotted stems of 

 the plantain, which here consists of aged plants, each with but a few 

 stunted leaves; and occasionally on the under-side of large stones, 

 which have fallen from the cliff; and they are suspended and partly 

 surrounded in the latter case with a fine web. They are also generally 

 to be found in pairs. The caterpillars evidently prefer these stunted 

 plants, for at the base of the declivity, where the plantain grows lux- 

 uriantly, not one is to be seen. They are black and spiny, with red 

 heads and legs: being hatched in August, they pass the winter 

 in societies, under a kind of tent, formed by a compact web, brought 

 round and over the stems of grasses. I have found several of these 

 societies on the 27th of August, the individuals which composed them 

 being about a quarter of an inch long, rolled up like little balls. All 

 these societies occurred at the base of the declivity, where the herbage 

 grows most luxuriantly; and when the caterpillars have attained suffi- 

 cient strength in the spring, they are invariably seen ascending to- 



