153 



Stjb-Genus VANESSA. 



This differs from the last in having the wings more angulated, palpi more 

 hairy, in the club of the antennae being rather less pointed, and in the cater- 

 pillars having no spines on the head. There is also a difference in the habits, 

 the caterpillars of Vanessa being gregarious, those of Pyrantels being solitary. 

 The perfect insects differ from one another in some points of structure ; for 

 example, Vanessa Io has the anterior tarsus of the male nearly cylindiic, 

 whilst that of Urtica is, as it were, strangulated near the middle, and that of 

 Antiqpa offers two strangulations. Again, the anterior tarsi of the females 

 differ in some slight degree : the articulations in Io being much more distinct 

 than they are in Folychloros or Urticce, and the proportions of the joints are 

 slightly different. 



In Martin Lister's edition of "Goedart's Insects/' published at London, 

 in 1685, we find the following account of the chrysalis of one of this genus : 

 " Sine Larva Papilionis, Gracie Chrysalis appelatur, sine res deaurata, ut ex 

 notatione Nominis patet. Latine non datur nomen (quod sciam), quo ex- 

 primatur : Ego transluli Aurelian. Ut cunque Latini Bruchum vocant 

 Erucam : Quod quidem vocabulum (ut ex loco quodamin vitruvio conjectoe) 

 veteri Tuscorum Lingua viride seris significans, inde transfectur ad Bruchum 

 designandum. Sunt enim Brucha quidam, quos ipse Languedocise agens 

 compexi, qui communi quodam Tithymalli genere pasti; colore cceruleo sine 

 cyaneo insignitur pinguntur. Adeoque sicut pancarum Chrysalidum deauratio, 

 unuversis nomenclarionem dedit, pari etiam ratione unius cujuspiam Erucae 

 color cserulens, cuvitas eodem nomine insignivit. Quod ad deaurationem 

 ipsam, nil aliud esse autumo, quam succi cujusdam, inter Eruese pelluculam, 

 et Chrysaiidis restulam, quam regit, evaporati, spumam sine recrementum." 



This sub-genus contains about two dozen species, which are inhabitants of 

 the northern temperate zone, extending probably round the world. Their 

 geographical range is extensive, and the species of the Old World are, to a 

 certain extent, represented in the New World ; and one species, Antiopa, 

 seems to be common to both. Vanessa Urticce of Europe, is represented in 

 America by Milberti; and the V, album of Eastern Europe has its exact 

 counterpart in F. album of the Northern States of America. . Six species are 

 European, four of them occurring in the British Isles. 



Another species, Velleda, Fab., now referred to the genus Junonia, was 

 recorded as British by James Petiver, in his "Papilionum Brittannise, 

 Icones, Nomina, &c./' published in 1717, as follows: "Papilio Oculatus 

 Hampstediensis, ex aureo fuscus. Albin's Hampstead Eye, where it was 

 caught by this curious person, and is the only one 1 have ever seen/' 



