THE SMALL TORTOISESHELL 
I5i 
feeding on the young leaves, perforating them and spinning 
a layer of web all over the portion they live on. When all 
the terminal leaves are consumed, they move off in a body to 
the topmost leaves of another plant. If the brood is very 
large, directly after hatching they break up into separate 
companies, from three to live. 
When fully grown, after the fourth moult, and twenty-six 
days old, the larva is 22 mm. long. The body tapers at each 
end ; the first segment is the smallest. The head is a shining 
black and is 
notched on the 
crown, covered 
with greenish 
tubercles each 
emitting a black 
bristle. Along 
the body are 
seven longitu¬ 
dinal rows of 
branching tu¬ 
bercles; the 
apex and each 
branch termin¬ 
ates in a rather 
long sharply- 
pointed black 
spine. The tu¬ 
bercles are of 
varying depths 
of olive-green 
and usually the sub-dorsal series are black, but all are glossy. 
The body is rather densely speckled with white and yellow 
warts, each bearing a spinous hair, all varying in length and 
mostly white. 
The larvae vary greatly in colour ; some are almost wholly 
black, while some are variegated with a preponderance of 
yellow ; between the two extremes every gradation exists. 
The usual form has the ground colour black on the dorsal 
surface and more or less olive below the spiracular line ; a 
pale yellow checkered chain-like lateral band encloses the 
The Small Tortoiseshell laying eggs. 
Sketched from life, 25.5.1907. 
