THE LARGE TORTOISESHELL 
r 55 
similar manner in the case of both butterflies. The eggs of 
other British Vanessidae are green. The larvae of both feed 
on the foliage of trees and have the same habits, and in many 
respects the butterflies are much alike, especially in regard 
to the bristles covering part of the wings, which do not exist 
in any other species. These various characters appear to 
have been overlooked by previous authors, who have separated 
these two butterflies by placing A gluts urticac and Nymfihalis 
io between them. 
Haunts and Distribu- 
t i o n. The chief 
haunts of this line 
butterfly are roadways 
and lanes where Elms 
and Sallow abound on 
the outskirts of forests, 
and woodland gener¬ 
ally. 
The Large Tortoise¬ 
shell is generally dis¬ 
tributed over England 
and Wales, and prob¬ 
ably at some time or 
other lias occurred in 
every county, but it is 
very erratic in its 
appearance, occasion¬ 
ally occurring in 
abundance, and then The Large Tortoiseshell just after emergence, 
for many years it may Sketched from life, S.30 a.m., July, 1911. 
be scarce or entirely 
absent in certain districts. In the years 1872 and 1873 I 
found these butterflies in abundance in the neighbourhood of 
Ipswich. In the spring of 1873, on several consecutive days, 
I used to watch a large number of these fine insects which 
assembled on two small beech trees still retaining the dead 
leaves upon which the butterflies settled and fluttered around 
during the greater part of the day in the warm sunshine. 
Probably the butterflies had hibernated amongst the brown 
withered foliage, which was particularly dense. After that 
