128 



Family NYMPHALIBiE. 



Their wings with azure, green, and purple gloss'd, 

 Studded with colour'd, with gems embossed, ' 

 Inlaid with pearl, and marked with various stains 

 Of lively crimson through their dusky veins. 



Mrs. Barbauld. 



Genus XVII. — LIMENIT1S. 

 Fabricius. 



Limeni'tis, a Greek word signifying harbour keeping, an epithet applied 

 to several divinities, but especially to Diana. 



A genus of about thirty species, some of which are of considerable size. 

 They are natives of Europe, Asia, the Indian Islands, and^ "North America. 

 Three only occur in Europe, and but one in Britain. 



Limenitis somewhat resembles Apatura in appearance, but may be discrimi- 

 nated by the rotundity of the hinder margin of the fore-wings, and pubescence 

 of the eyes and palpi ; the club of the antennse is more slender than in Apa- 

 tura, and not arcuate and sub-compressed, as in Hipparchia ; and the males 

 are without that beautiful purple gloss so characteristic of those of Ap*ura. 

 The caterpillars are totally different, being elongate, with obtuse spines on 

 the back, and bundles of hair on the sides. The chrysalids are sub-angular, 

 with beaked head cases. 



LIMENITIS SIBYLLA. 

 White Admiral. 



Sibylla, Fab. Sibylla, one of the Sibylls, divinely inspired women, who 

 composed the Sibylline verses, offered to Tarquin the Proud, King of Rome. 



This elegant butterfly is one of those in which the choicest ornamentation 

 is bestowed upon the under surface. Above a dark black brown tint, banded 

 and spotted with white, is all that meets the eye ; but beneath there is a 

 piece of the most exquisitely harmonious colouring, though the hues that 

 compose it are still of a subdued and secondary nature — silvery blue, and 

 golden brown blended with a lighter brown and black, are placed in vavac- 

 ious contrast with bands and spots of pure silvery white. 



The width across the wings varies from two inches in the male to two and 

 a half inches in the female. 



This species has no named varieties, and is tolerably constant to the type, 

 except that the central band, like that of the variety Iole of A.ptura iris, is 

 more or less broken by the darker ground colour. A figure of this variety, 

 by the Rev. W, Bree, is in the fifth volume of " Loudon's Natural History." 



