185 



the difference between the two species ; bat both descriptions are from Swiss 

 specimens. 



Limenitis Camilla is, in Switzerland, by far the commoner species of the 

 two, and generally frequents gardens ; whilst L. sibylla confines itself to open 

 places in woods and forests. 



Genus XVIIL— VANESSA. 

 Fabricius. 



Yanessa, probably from Swift's poem " Cademus and Yanessa," in which 

 the Dean (Decanus) tells the story of his love for Esther (Essa) Yanhom- 

 brugh. Sodoffsky proposes Phanessa, from Phanees, a Neo-platonic name 

 for the God of Love. 



This genus contains the most vigorous and active of the British butterflies, 

 which are no less distinguished by their boldness than by their superior size, 

 and by the gaiety of their colour. Indeed one species, Antiopa, with its rich 

 chocolate coloured wings, bordered with white or yellow, offers a character 

 almost unique in the Diurnal Lepidoptera ; and the same may almost be said 

 of Io, which, its richly coloured wings, so aptly described by the poet 

 Spenser — 



" The velvet nap which on his wings doth lie, 

 The silken down with which his backe is dight, 

 His broad outstretched horns, his hayris thies, 

 His glorious colours and his glistening eies," 



renders one of the most beautiful butterflies of the northern zone. Not far 

 behind, again, is Atalanta, in her scarlet robes of aldermanic dignity. It 

 also contains that singularly shaped species C -album, which the rugged and 

 jagged appearance of its wings sufficiently distinguishes from every other 

 British species : indeed wings indentated in this remarkable manner are rare- 

 ly seen in any insects, those from foreign countries not excepted. 



Their geographical range is extensive, and the species of the Old World 

 are, to a certain extent, represented in the New World ; and three species 

 Cardui, Atalanta, and Antiopa seem to be common to both hemispheres. 

 Antiopa, generally so rare in Britain, though it has sometimes appeared in 

 numbers is common almost throughout Europe, and, in America extends from 

 Hudson's Bay to the Rocky Mountains ; and southwards to the mountains 

 of Mexico. Cardui has, perhaps, a wider geographical range than any 

 other butterfly, being found throughout the whole of Europe, Asia, and 

 Africa; and in the New World has been met with from Hudson's Bay to 

 within ten or twelve degrees north of the Equator. It is also found in the 



