MELir.EA . 
179 
Oil high iiioiiiitains, in valleys, plains, woods, lields, &c. As a 
Biitisli insect it is extremely capricious in its appearance, some- 
times not being seen for some years and then suddenly appearing 
in great numbers more or less tlirongliont the country. It appears 
to be very fond of clover-fields and of ivy-liloom in the autumn. 
Larva. — “The colour of the bead is dull black; the dorsal 
surface of the body is black ; the spines paler, with black tips and 
branches ; the hairs are white ; the skinfold separating the dorsal 
and ventral surface is yellow ; the ventral surface, legs, and 
claspers are pitchy red ; the spiracles above the skinfold are pale 
in the middle, then surrounded with black, then again with paler ; 
In many individuals the dorsal surface is irrorated with yellowish 
white dots, which are more conspicuously collected in a double 
series along the back, interrupted by a narrow medio-dorsal stripe 
intensely black ; in these examples the bulbous base of each spine 
is pitchy red.” — Newman, Brit. Butt., page Go. 
Pupa. — Yellowish grey, striped with brown, and with metallic 
gold-coloured decorations. 
The Larva feeds on various species of Carduus, generally the 
common held-thistle. 
Genus 4. — MELIT.^A, Fab. 111. Mag. vi. p. 284 (1807) ; Doubl. 
Gen. D. L. p. 177 (1848). 
Argynnis, Lat. 
Larvae covered with spine-bearing tubercles ; they are gre- 
garious under a common web until after hybernation ; they feed on 
various low plants, such as Scahiosa, Flautayo, and Veronica. 
Pupae short and thick, not angulated as in Vanessa, blunt 
anteriorly ; they are without metallic markings, but generally 
spotted with black or yellowish. 
Imagines usually below the medium size. The wings are sub- 
denticnlate, not angled; the discoidal cell of the fore wings generally 
half closed, that of the hind wings open ; in colour the wings are 
fulvous, generally brightly so, with black square spots arranged in 
transverse rows. The hind wings have on their under side a 
central band of pale yellow, sometimes broken up into detached 
