OF OUR LEPIDOPTEROUS INSECTS. 
225 
when quite young; that of the silver-washed fritillary (A. paphia) 
emerges in August, and after eating its egg-shell hybernates 
without taking any other food, and begins to feed after hybernation 
at the beginning of April. 
There are two broods in the year of several of our butterflies, 
among them the common blue, the Clifden blue, the holly blue, 
and the brown argus, and several of the Satyridse, while there are 
three broods of the small copper. 
The instinct of the females of insects that enables them to lay 
their eggs on the plant or plants which their larvae will feed upon 
has always seemed to me to be one of the most wonderful things in 
nature. Mr. Tutt thinks that they discover the proper plant by 
scent. It is very interesting to watch a female of the brimstone, 
for instance, as I have often done in Bricket Wood, picking out 
the trees of Rhamnus frangula and laying her eggs singly. 
In some double-brooded species the food-plant of the two broods 
is different. For instance, the holly blue; the females of the 
Spring brood, which is out in April, lay their eggs on the buds 
and blossoms of the holly, while those of the Autumn brood lay 
their eggs in July or August on the blossoms and young shoots 
of the ivy. The butterflies of the two broods are exactly alike in 
appearance, although reared upon different plants. Some butter¬ 
flies lay their eggs singly when the caterpillars are solitary feeders; 
others lay them in batches if their larvae are gregarious. The 
eggs are usually attached to the plant by some glutinous substance, 
but one of our butterflies, the marbled white, drops her eggs loose 
among the grass upon which the larvae feed. 
Ho butterfly lives for a year, and very few for more than a few 
months at the outside. 
The species which probably lives longest as a butterfly is the 
brimstone. It emerges from the pupa in July or August, and 
after about a month settles down for hybernation. It comes out 
often during the Winter on warm, sunny days, and appears on the 
wing again in March. This species does not pair till the Spring 
after hybernation, and I have often seen them still out quite late 
in June, having probably lived as butterflies for eleven months. 
The only food which butterflies can take is the honey from 
flowers. They have a proboscis, a sort of hollow tongue which is 
rolled up when not in use between the palpi, beneath the head. 
It seems wonderful that a butterfly can exist, and for the most of 
its life in vigorous flight, upon so small an amount of sustenance. 
I cannot do better than conclude with an account of some most 
interesting observations which Mr. Frohawk has been making 
upon the Camberwell beauty (Vanessa antiopa ), one of our rarest 
butterflies. At long intervals it appears in considerable numbers, 
and then is hardly seen for years, though it will occasionally turn 
up singly in all sorts of places all over England. It is, of course, 
a common species on the Continent, and from Mr. Frohawk’s 
experience there seems to be no reason why it should not breed 
and be common here. We have at present only the first portion 
