THE RED ADMIRAL 
139 
The ground colour is usually a pale buffish-brown, more or 
less covered with a grey powdery bloom, and beautifully 
adorned with gilded metallic ornamentations of various sizes ; 
in some specimens these form large patches of gilt. The whole 
surface is granulated. 
The pupa is suspended by the cremastral hooks to a pad 
of silk spun upon the under surface of a leaf, which has the 
edges and surrounding leaves coarsely spun together with 
silk, forming a tent enveloping the pupa. The pupal stage 
occupies seventeen days. The complete transformations, from 
the time the egg is laid to the emergence of the imago, occupy 
forty-nine days. 
Imago. The average ex¬ 
panse of the wings in the 
male is 67 mm. ; in the 
female, 72 mm. The sexual 
difference is slight. The 
female is the larger, the 
outer margins of the hind 
wings being rounder and 
the marginal red band 
rather broader. 
The outer margin of the 
fore wing is hollowed in 
the middle. (Upper Side.) 
The ground colour is a 
velvety-black with an oblique scarlet band crossing the fore 
wing and a marginal band of the same colour on the hind 
wing. At the apical third of the costa of the fore wing is a 
large, oblong, snow-white blotch and five smaller spots of the 
same intense whiteness, the fourth lower spot being the 
largest. Running parallel with the outer margin is a row of 
lilac lunular markings. A small white spot frequently exists 
in the red band of the fore wing in both sexes, but is most 
frequent in the female. The older authors considered it a 
distinguishing mark of the female. The scarlet band of the 
hind wing has a row* of four black dots down the centie and 
blue and black lunules at the anal angle. 1 he fringes are 
white, spotted with black. (Under Side.) The pattern o 
the under side of the fore wing is similar to the upper side, 
The Red Admiral (Female ab. captured 
at Frith, Kent, August, 1889.) 
