IN MELITMA AVRINIA. 
167 
Larvae and Pdp^e.—P erhaps as this paper is entirely devoted to 
aurinia, a few remarks on the larvae and pupae may not be out of 
place. 
The former may he found about half-grown, hibernating gre¬ 
gariously in a web affixed among the herbage.* In the Spring they 
emerge and scatter, feeding alone. During April they are very 
easy to obtain, as they like to sun themselves on a leaf of their 
food-plants (plantain and devil’s bit scabious). They are thus an 
easy prey to parasites, and a great number of them perish from this 
cause. I obtained four or five different species of parasites. 
Infested pupae are excellent for the cabinet when the flies have 
emerged, as the colour is beautifully preserved. The full-fed larva 
suspends itself by the tail to some convenient plant. In Galway 
a heather-plant was usually chosen, and the larva climbed as high 
as it could. 
The pupae are not hard to find, though the larvae, which at first 
glance greatly resemble those of Vanessa Io , are much more easily 
obtainable, as they make no attempt at concealment. 
Melitcea aurinia is a Hertfordshire butterfly. It was first recorded 
for the county (as M. artemis ) in 1885, in our ‘Transactions’ 
(Vol. Ill, pp. 265, 266), as having been “taken at Knebworth 
Wood by Mr. B. Christian two or three years ago” {i.e. before 
1885). It has also been taken at Haileybury near Hertford several 
times lately, as recorded by Mr. A. E. Gibbs in his article on the 
Lepidoptera in the ‘ Victoria History of the County of Hertford ’ 
(vol. i, p. 148, 1902). 
* They are most frequently found upon low meadows or marshy land, hut in 
Galway County they frequent also the slopes of the limestone hills. 
