THE LARGE TORTOISESHELL 
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The larval state lasts about thirty days. 
Pupa. The pupa averages 25*4 mm. long. The head is 
beaked and rises to an angulated, keeled, thoracic point, 
deeply concaved at the waist; the abdQmen is swollen at 
the third and fourth segments, then curved and tapering to 
the anal segment, which terminates in a long slightly-curved 
cremaster amply furnished with a cluster of black hooks. 
The ventral surface is slightly undulating, otherwise it forms 
almost a straight line. 
The colour varies from coppery ochreous to a dull smoky- 
bronze, more or less checkered with dull pink and black in 
the dark form, to golden-bronze variegated with rust-red, 
pinkish, and greenish-olive, in the light form. Most specimens 
have blotches of brilliant silver-gilt surrounding the dorsal 
points on the thorax and first two abdominal segments, 
but these vary greatly in size ; in many pupae they are 
large and glittering, in others just visible, and in some 
entirely absent. 
The pupa is suspended by the anal hooks to a pad of silk 
spun upon the surface of the site chosen by the larva, often 
at some distance from its food plant. The pupal stage lasts 
fourteen days. 
Imago. The average expanse of the wings in the male is 
64 mm. ; in the female, 70 mm. The sexual difference is 
slight. The female is the larger, and the markings are some¬ 
what heavier. 
(Upper Surface.) The ground colour varies from a rich 
deep fulvous to a tawny-ochreous, spotted and blotched with 
black and ochreous-yellow. The outer margins of both fore 
and hind wings are scalloped. . The fore wing has a slight 
projection below the apex, the middle of the outer margin is 
hollowed out, and there is a rounded projection above the 
anal angle ; the hind wing has a central projection. The 
fore wing has seven velvety-black markings, three along the 
costa, the basal spot being much the smallest and usually 
double ; the middle blotch is large and squared ; the third 
sub-apical one is curved ; there are two rounded central spots, 
a larger one towards the base and a heart-shaped smaller one 
near the anal angle. The black marginal band is traversed 
by a series of ochreous lunules and often by a series of blue 
