76 



around for a few moments, now fluttering, and anon gliding on motionless wing,, 

 settles down again in some sheltered spot where it sits opening and closing its 

 wing.s, enjoying the balmy air and bright sunshine that once again awakens 

 nature from her death-like sleep, to renewed life and activity. This is the well- 

 known Antiopa butterfly, the " Camberwell Beauty " of the English entomologists. 

 Antiopa passes the winter in any convenient shelter that it can find. Dr. Harris 

 tells us that he has found it sticking to the rafters of a barn, and in the crevices 

 of walls and stone heaps, huddling together in great numbers. It also hibernates 

 on the ground, clinging to the under surface of stones in dry situations. The 

 female deposits her eggs in a cluster around a twig of elm, willow or poplar ; and 

 until nearly full grown, the caterpillars keep together. The mature larva is black, 

 thickly dotted with white giving it a grayish appearance. On top of the back is a 

 row of eight brick-red spots, and the body is armed with a number of strong branch- 

 ing spines. The first brood of caterpillars appears in June, the second in August, 

 and the butterflies from the last brood hibernate. The butterfly is dark maroon 

 brown on the upper side of the wings, with a broad border of yellow, thickly 

 dotted with brown ; on the inner side of this border there is a band of black, in 

 which is set a row of blue spots ; the front edge of the wings is marked with fine 

 yellow lines and two spots of the same colour. A variety is occasionally met with, 

 in which the yellow border is unusually broad, and the dark band with the blue 

 spots is wanting. 



If numerous enough to be troublesome, these caterpillars may be killed by 

 shaking them off* the branch on which they are congregated, and crushing them. 

 This should be done while they are small, as when nearly full grown, they scatter 

 over the trees and wander about in search of a suitable place in which to undergo 

 their transformations. 



10. The Interrogation Butterfly, Grapta interrogationis, Fah, Order 

 Lepidoptera, Family Nymphalidse. — This is a dimorphic species, the hibernating 

 form being known as Fahricii, the other as Umhrosa. Fig. 45 represents G. 



progne, a closely allied species. 



Farther to the south there are about four 

 broods in a season, but with us only two,, 

 and while the last brood gives the pale form 

 which hibernates, the other broods are more 

 or less mixed, Fahricii has the upper surface 

 fulvous, spotted with black and clouded with 

 warm brown ; on the hind wings the brown pre- 

 dominates, the lighter colour being restricted 

 to a patch on the upper angle, and a row of 

 spots a little inside the outer edge ; the edges 

 of all the wings are light purplish blue. The front margin of the fore wings is 

 convex, the tip cut squarely off", the outer margin concave. Hind wings tailed. 

 Under surface marbled and clouded with various shades of brown and purple, and 

 with an interrupted C. in the middle Umhrosa has the upper surface of the hind 

 wings almost entirely black, the submarginal row of spots being absent, the fore 

 wings are not so falcate, and the tail on the hind wings is shorter. 



" The young larvae are whitish yellow, somewhat marked with brown, head 

 black. After the first moult their colour is black, more or less specked with white^ 

 and they begin to be clothed with short spines, all black except those on the 

 eighth and tenth segments which are whitish. After the second moult they be- 

 gin to assume the type they retain to maturity. The spines are in seven rows, 

 fleshy at base, slender and many-branching at extremity ; the dorsal and first 



