169 



All the known species have the upper surface more or less brightly ful- 

 vous, spotted with black. The lower wings have on the underside a more or 

 less angular silvery or pale golden mark, resembling sometimes the letter 

 L or C. 



The geographical range of the genus is nearly confined to the temperate 

 regions of both the Old and New Worlds. Three species are found in the 

 United States of North America, one in Mexico, and one in California ; one 

 in China ; and two in Europe. Of our European species, one inhabits the 

 more northern and central portion, including England ; the other prefers the 

 shores of the Mediterranean, and I have seen it in profusion flying about and 

 settling on the walls of the Acropolis, at Athens : it is named Egea by 

 Cramer, and the caterpillar feeds on Parietaria officinalis. 



VANESSA C- ALBUM. 

 The Comma. 



C- album, Linn. C-al'bum, so called from the white C like mark on the 

 underside of the hind-wings. 



The singularly jagged outline of this insect at once distinguishes it from 

 every other of our British butterflies, though it might be taken for stunted, 

 deformed, and torn specimens of some of our other species, so similar is it in 

 colour and the plan of its markings. 



The wings expand from an inch and three-quarters to rather over two 

 inches. On theupperside they are of a bright fulvous with dark hindmargins 

 and base, and several dark brown spots and a few paler ones. On the 

 underside they are elegantly variegated with transverse streaks of rich brown, 

 whitish grey, grey, and metallic green, in which latter are small black specks. 

 The hindwings, as has already been mentioned, have a white C, or comma-like 

 mark in the centre. 



Mr. Newman, in his " British Butterflies " observes, " There are three 

 very constant varieties in the colouring of the underside, the characteristics of 

 which may be described as repletion, variety, and depletion : in the first, the 

 brown is dark, dull, and uniform ; in the second, it is richly varied with 

 different shades of brown and metallic green ; and in the third, the colour 

 seems partially bleached, and assumes a tinge of fulvous yellow. Mr. Dale, 

 one of our best lepidopterists, regards the first and third of these varieties 

 as a first and second brood. Mrs. Hutchinson, who is better acquainted with 

 this butterfly than any other entomologist in the kingdom, considers the 

 uniformly dark brown specimens to be females, and the richly varied speci- 

 mens to be males, Accepting these views as correct, there remains a little 



