atalanta. 
cardui. 
kershawi. 
458 PYRAMEIS. By Dr. A. SErrz. a 
into a grey-brown pupa with very strong teeth on the anterior part. The butterfly appears after 3 or 4 weeks 
and is not protected, but when its powers of flight are fully developed is not pursued by birds; newly emerged 
specimens, on the contrary, are eagerly seized upon by insect-eaters. Of over 100 freshly emerged antiopa which 
I released all, even to the very last one, were caught by a number of Muscicapa grisola. The butterflies 
do not visit flowers, but drink at bleeding trees and at fruit (on which they always rest head downwards), 
as well as at wet places in the road. The flight is quiet and graceful. The pupa is nearly always attacked 
by small ichneumons, which pierce it at the moment when the larval skin is shed, so that only about 10% 
of all the larvae that pupate in the open produce butterflies. 
11. Genus: Pyrameis F. 
The species of Pyrameis have not the sharp teeth on the forewing which characterize the preceding 
genera. The apex of the forewing is always spotted with white. The larva has no horns on the head and 
does not live free and gregariously, but singly and in a habitation formed of leaves drawn together. Most 
species of the genus are very common; some, however, are confined to islands, while others are true cosmo- 
politans. Very striking is the prevalence of the Pyrameis species on certain islands: while on the continents 
in most places 2 species occur, or at most 3, there are 4 on the Canary Islands and 4 in New Zealand, which 
is otherwise very poor in butterflies; on Teneriffe P. vulcanica, atalanta, virginiensis and cardui, in New Zealand 
itea, gonerilla, atalanta and kershawi. The largest and most beautiful species — P. tameamea — inhabits the 
remote Sandwich Islands. 
P. atalanta L. (= admiralis Retz.) (94 a and vol. I, pl. 62c). Deep velvety black-brown; forewing with 
black, white-spotted apical part, preceded by a scarlet band; hindwing with red, black-dotted marginal band. 
Europe, Asia Minor and North Africa; accidentally introduced into New Zealand; in America everywhere in 
the United States, from there southwards to Guatemala and on Haiti. North American specimens differ from 
European in the somewhat narrower band of the forewing, African are about intermediate between the two. 
— Larva black-grey, yellow-brown or red-brown, strongly chequered and marked with yellow; on Urtica, 
Boehmeria and hops. The butterfly from July to the autumn, in warmer regions hibernating regularly, in 
colder only exceptionally. It.is especially fond of grape and beer sugar or the sap of wounded trees. Only rare 
in the south. 
P. cardui L. (= carduelis Cr.) (vol. I, pl. 62 d). Apex of the forewing similar to that of the preceding 
species, disc fleshy red to tawny, spotted with black. Separate names have been very unnecessarily given, 
small specimens being called minor, pale ones pallens, those with few spots inornata, very strongly spotted elymi; 
cf. vol. I, p. 199 seq. In the Old World everywhere; either common and endemic, or (in the north). annually 
as an immigrant, and only temporarily sedentary as a summer brood. In North America it is much rarer 
than in the Old World and by no means generally distributed ; southwards it certainly extends to Central America; 
its reported occurrence in South America is probably due to some mistake; a form known from Australia and 
New Zealand, kershawi McCoy, has been erroneously reported from Central America. In addition to the 
blue-pupilled eye-spots on the hindwing above, this form has also a quite different under surface, which in 
the examination of the alleged American kershawi was not taken into account. Except in kershawi no distinct 
racial variation at all can be detected; neither the East Asiatic nor the African specimens allow of separation 
as subspecies. Cf. FRuusTorrFeR in vol. IX, p. 525 of the ,,Macrolepidoptera of the World“. — The larva is 
iron-grey or yellow-brownish, the ground-colour mostly similar to the earth on which the infested thistle stands, 
with short, strong spines, which urticate somewhat when touched; marked with light, fine, more or less inter- 
rupted lines, spots and dots. Chiefly on thistles, the leaves of which it draws together loosely into a tent in which 
it lives. But it also occurs on nettles; and in certain years in which it multiplies enormously (as in South Ger- 
many in the summer of 1879) the huge swarms of larvae sometimes destroy the nettles over wide areas: 
The migratory instinct of the butterfly is wonderfully developed. The 99 appear sometimes to migrate alone 
or separated from the g¢, at least the numerous specimens which I took where the insects had assembled 
or during their journeying proved without exception to be 99. Sxerrcuty in Africa observed the simultaneous 
emergence of whole swarms of cardui, which directly their wings were dry started on their travels. Merops 
apiaster has been noticed as a bird that preys upon cardui. — cardui appears singly in the spring in migrated 
(north) or hibernated (south) specimens. The larvae are full grown from July to September, the but- 
terflies appear in the north chiefly in August. The fg dash rapidly along on mountain-summits and high roads 
and love flowers of all sorts; they rest on the ground nearly always with the wings closed, but occasionally 
with them spread quite wide and play with Pyrameis of their own or other species, by preference with the gg 
of the atalanta group; on these occasions the atalanta-like butterfly always rests head downwards on a rock 
or stone, but cardwi sits before it horizontally on the ground with its head turned towards its playmate. This 
relation I have observed between atalanta and cardui in Europe, indica and cardui in Japan, volcanica and 
cardut on Teneriffe and tea and kershawi in Australia. — It may be assumed that cardui will spread more widely 
and become commoner in America. 
