13] 
THE NETTLE TORTOISE.SHELL BUTTERFLY. 
Papilio Urtice.—Brirain. 
PLATE 111. 
Papilio Urtiem, Linn. Syst. Nat. ii. p. 777. No. 167.— 
Wilk’s Pap. 56. pl. 3. a. 5,—Vanessa Urticw, Latreille. 
Tuis is one of the most beautiful papilionaceous 
insects of Britain. The ground colour of its wings is 
red, the upper wings are marked with alternate 
abbreviate bands of black and pale orange, or golden 
yellow, on the exterior margin. There are three black 
spots on each wing, and mottled at top, the under 
one large, oval, with a yellow spot at its base; the 
posterior margins of both superior and inferior wings 
haye a broad black band, edged with yellow at their 
outer extremity, and, in their centre, a catenated 
fascia of blue; these margins are considerably in- 
dented; body, head, and antenne, black ; the former 
being thickly set with dark brown hairs ; lower edge 
of the segments brown. 
The Papilio Urticce makes its first appearance in 
a winged state about the middle of April. It isa 
short lived insect ; it lays its eggs in the beginning 
of May in great numbers on the higher stalks of 
nettles, and dies very shortly afterwards. 
The eggs of this insect are covered with a moist, 
