Tortoise-shell Butterfly. 
585 
a, 
TORTOISE-SHELL BUTTERFLY. 
(Vanessa urticce.) 
The Caterpillar, which feeds on the nettle, is about an 
inch in length, covered with bristles, and of a reddish 
brown colour. After having changed its skin three times 
when in the shape of a Caterpillar, it crawls up to a 
branching part of the stalk ; and, hanging itself by the 
hinder part or tail, swells and bursts in such a curious 
way, that the Caterpillar's skin drops to the ground, 
and the chrysalis, or aurelia, remains suspended; till 
after a fortnight of torpor it bursts its skin again, and 
escapes into the air, under the beautiful form of a 
variegated Butterfly. The golden line which shines 
through the pupa case of this Butterfly is supposed to 
have suggested the words chrysalis and aurelia, both of 
which signify golden. The wings of the perfect insect 
are about two inches in extent, of a deep orange colour 
above, and their base and hinder margin black, with a 
series of blue crescents. These Butterflies, which are 
very common in England, appear in spring, and at the 
end of June and beginning of September. 
