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NYMPHALID.E. 
Habitat. — G-arclens, fields, waste places, in fact almost any 
kind of country tlirongliont the whole of Europe and North Asia ; 
it is, however, absent from North America and from North Africa ; 
in Britain it is about the most widely distributed, and one of the 
commonest butterflies, occurring everywhere. 
Laeva yellowish grey, with a black dorsal line and with a broad 
brown lateral stripe, beneath which is a yellow line. The head 
and spines are black. It feeds on the common nettle (Urtica dioica) 
in June and July. 
Obs. — V. Urticce is subject to a great many variations in the 
arrangement of spots and in the breadth of the dark marginal 
band ; indeed it would he possible to fill a dozen plates with 
figures of aberrations of this kind. I have had many beautiful 
and interesting specimens kindly brought to my notice by Ento- 
mologists, and I only regret that want of space prevents their being 
figured in the present work. 
VAEIETIES. 
a. Turcica, Staudinger, Cat. p. 16 (1871). Inhabits the Balcan 
provinces and Asia Minor, and is intermediate between the typical 
form and the next ; it is redder in colour than the type, has the 
two small central spots nearly absent, and the yellow patch on the 
inner margin is wanting. The eyes are red instead of brown. 
PI. XL., 4. 
h. Ichnusa, Bon. descr. t. 3, 2 ; Dup. i. 23, 4 ; B. Ic. 24, 2 ; 
Hub. 840; Kbr. Ann. Soc. Fr. (1832), pi. 7, 3. This important 
variety or sub-species differs from the type in the shape of the 
wings as well as in the markings ; the wings are much less angu- 
lated than in true Urticce, the central and inner-marginal spots are 
either entirely absent or very nearly so. The under side is more 
strongly marked. PI. XL., 5. 
Habitat. — Corsica and Sardinia. 
Obs. — Varieties of Urticce sometimes occur in Britain and else- 
where, in which the dorsal and median spots are in abeyance on 
the fore wings, but these have not the same outline as the true 
Jditnisa which is confined to the above islands. 
