THE YOUHG" NATUBALIST. 



71 



name for the present species on account j 

 of its great speed on the wing and powers 

 of flight. In Dry den's translation of Ovid 

 the reference will be be found at line 917, 

 Book X. 



Imago.— 1 'late 11. Fig. 2. Forewing 

 black, with a red band across, and a U 

 shaped band of white spots at the tip. There 

 is one white spot between the U and the red 

 band, and sometimes another on the band 

 itself. We believe this second spot is only 

 found on the female. Hind wing black, with 

 a red hind margin which includes a row of 

 black spots. The edge of the hind margin of 

 both wings is white, and there is a small blue 

 spot at the anal angle of hind wing. 



Larva.— Plate u, Fig. 2a. Very vari- 

 able in color : sometimes being almost black, 1 

 and at other times a sort of dirty white : the I 

 general color, however, is a dingy greyish : 

 green. The spines, too, vary in the same ! 

 way. The head and legs are black, the 

 claspers reddish. 



Pupa.— Plate 1 1. Fig. 2b. Rather stumpy, 

 but much angulated, dull, grey, finely 

 marked with black, and adorned with golden \ 

 blotches, particularly on the more prominent 

 parts. 



Food Plants. — Common stinging nettle 

 (Urtica dioica). 



Times of Appearance.— The imago 

 emerges in August, and remains on the wing 

 till late in October. It has a very abnormal ; 

 habit of flying by night, and specimens have 

 occurred both at light and sugar. A record 1 

 of its occurrence at light may be found at 

 page 114 of Vol. I, and we have taken it at 

 sugar in October ourselves, and have also 

 seen it fly to our lantern after 11 o'clock at 

 night. It hybernates without pairing and 

 does not emerge from its Winter retreat so j 

 early as other hybernating species, and is not I 

 so often seen. We have never observed it 

 Ourselves before June. The eggs are laid ; 

 singly on the common nettle, and the young j 

 larva, after selecting a suitable leaf, draws it J 

 together by the edges, and lives within the I 



\ retreat thus formed. When it requires a 

 larger domicile it leaves the old one and 

 I forms another, but is never to be found feed- 

 : ing exposed. The pupa is concealed with 

 ! equal care, but a practised eye will soon 

 detect them among the leaves. 



Habitat. — Common in all parts of 

 Britain, and equally so in Ireland. Nettles 

 are very much weeds of cultivated land, and 

 especially are apt to be close to a farmhouse or 

 the outbuildings. It is in such places, there- 

 fore, that we bhould look for the larva cr 

 pupa, but the butterfly itself is so strong on 

 the wing that distance is little object to it, 

 and it may be found in Autumn wherever 

 there are suitable places, or basking on the 

 dusty road like the last species. It occurs all 



• over Europe except in the extreme north. It 

 is found in Asia Minor, in northern Africa, 



• and in the Mauritius, and also in the West- 

 '. ern parts of North America. 



Variation. — Atalanta is not a variable 

 species, and no form has been named, A few 

 aberrations have occurred, but they are very 

 rare. Two are figured in Mosley's " Varie- 

 ; ties of British Lepidoptera," Vanessa, Plate 

 2 . One bred by Mr. Eedle has the scarlet 

 bands, pale yellow shading to orange. The 

 other bred by Mr. Yaughan has the bands 

 much paler than usual and abruptly 

 ! shortened at the anal angle. One in our own 

 I collection has the bands deep orange red, 

 - that on hind margin of hind wing being with- 

 out the usual black spots. The underside of 

 1 our specimen varies still more than the 

 upper, but cannot well be described in 

 ! words: we may say, however, that the red 

 band is much larger, and more of a blotch, 

 : the blue is more suffused, and the hind wing 

 ■ without the usual mottling, and with the 

 j pale shade at the hind margin much wider. 

 ' Parasites. — Mr. Bignell sent us beauti- 

 . fully mounted specimens of a parasite bred 

 ; from this species which appear to be an 

 Apanteles, but in our present state of know- 

 j ledge we are unable with certainty to 

 I determine the species. 



