THE YOUNG NATUKALlsT. 



wing but no white spots, three rows of black 

 spots at the hind margin. 



Larva. — The larva of Cardui varies from 

 dark grey to black, young individuals being 

 generally darkest. The spines are paler but 

 the tips and branches are black. There are j 

 a number of warty spots of greyish yellow and 

 scattered hairs all over it. The head is black 

 and the legs and claspers generally a dull red. 



Pupa. — Greyish ochreous in color, and 

 marked and striped with brown and black, 

 the prominence golden. In shape it resembles 

 the others figured on plate n, and is sus- 

 pended by the tail in the same way. 



Pood. Plants.— Various species of This- 

 tle. Nettle, Burdock and Mallow are also 

 named, but we never found the larva on any- 

 thing but the common field thistle fC'arduus 

 A rveasis.) 



Times of appearance .— Thi* species 

 id one of the most uncertain of our Hritish 

 Butterflies. Sometimes it will scarcely be 

 seen at all, or will disappear from a locality 

 for many years. Then it will come in such 

 countless swarms that Entomologists have not 

 yet discovered a satisfactory mode of account- 

 ing for them. In an ordinary way the imago 

 emerges in August or September, retires for 

 the winter i.i October, to appear again in 

 spring, but we have taken it so fine in June 

 that we could scarcely believe it had been on 

 the wing a couple of months in the previous 

 year, yet it cannot well pass the winter in 

 pupa. Some lepidoptera remain more than 

 one winter in pupa, only a portion of a brood 

 emerging, or the whole remaining over. 

 When this occurs, the insect does not appear 

 at an unusual time, but remains until its 

 regular period of emergence the next season. 

 Some species such as the small Eggar 

 (Eriogasta lanistris) have been known to be as 

 many as 10 years in pupa. The cause of 

 this curious habit is not known, but in species 

 that emerge in February, as does E. lanestris 

 it is easy to see that it is necessary for the 

 protection of the race. Is it not possible 

 that the same cause that operates to prevent 



an insect emerging from pupa, at what may be 

 called its proper time, may affect in a similar 

 way insects in a state of hybernation, and 

 that when the seasons are unsuitable, or 

 whatever other adverse cause there may be, 

 the hybernating insects, or most of them re- 

 main in a torpid state, for another year, or for 

 more than one. and then when the circum- 

 stances are favourable, they appear in large 

 numbers. This is not the place to argue out a 

 theory of this kind, but the suggestion is made 

 as a possible solution of 4 the difficulty. Cardui 

 pairs in spring, and the eggs are deposited 

 singly on the food plant. The larva is almost 

 as uncertain in its appearance as the imago. 

 It has been Jfound freely in July, and one 

 observer, Mr Westj i^See Entom. Vol. Ill, 

 P- 3°3)» noticed that none were to be seen 

 between July ->o and September 16 when they 

 again appeared freely. We have had them 

 only half fed, quite late in November, when 

 they died of starvation. We, of course, ex- 

 pected they would feed up, and did not expose 

 them to the weather, which had we done, 

 might have caused them to hybernate in this 

 state. We shall have something to say on 

 the subject when we have to speak of V. C- 

 album, but we commend the species to the 

 careful attention of our readers. Any ob- 

 servation made about the species is certain to 

 be worthy of publication, and probably many 

 observers must record all they know, before 

 I its history is thoroughly understood. 



Habitat.- -A most ubiquitous species. 

 It occurs all over England, Ireland, and 

 Scotland, and though a lover of open places 

 ' rather than of sylvan shades, we have seen it 

 | flying freely to the flowers of the Wild 

 Thyme ( Thymus serpyllum) on a grassy slope 

 i in a wood. It is fond of alighting in dusty 

 I lanes, and moves its wings up and down, 

 almost as though it were dusting itself, as 

 skylarks and other birds do. Kirby gives 

 The World (Mundus) as its range, and we 

 have specimens both from India and South 

 ! America that could not be distinguished from 

 those occurring in this country. 



