i6o 
NYMPHALIDAE 
ones. The hind wing has a black triangular costal blotch, 
and a marginal band similar to that on the fore wing, but 
always with conspicuous blue lunules, which are larger in the 
female and more brilliant. 
(Under Surface.) Both wings have the basal half amber- 
brown, with a sharply-defined angulated edge crossing the 
fore wing, and outlined with black and straighter across the 
hind wing ; the outer half of both wings is pale ochreous, 
clouded with light amber-brown, and there is a marginal 
black band with pale purplish lunules. The whole surface is 
finely but densely vermiculated with black and amber-brown. 
At the angle of the cell is a cream-coloured dot similar to 
that in both the Camberwell Beauty and the Peacock. The 
under surface is scattered with comparatively long, fine, 
black bristles, densest and longest on the basal third of the 
costa, where they project in front of the edge, forming a 
fringe. These occur in exactly the same way in N. antiopa 
and only on the under surface of both species, and remain 
attached to the membrane of the wings when they are denuded 
of all other scales. These bristles do not exist in any other 
species of the British Vanessids. 
Respecting the blue lunules in the marginal bands of the 
fore wings, it has been stated that they result from pupae 
subjected to cold, but this is not always the case, as in the 
hot summer of 1893 I captured specimens in the New Forest 
well marked with blue, and I have bred others from the same 
batch of eggs, under natural conditions, with both plain and 
blue-spotted borders. 
Life of Imago. N. polychlorus is one of the longest living 
of our butterflies, its normal span of life being between ten 
and eleven months. 
Aberration. Striking aberration in N. polychlorus is of very 
rare occurrence. Occasionally the surface is suffused with 
black speckles, and blackish blotches occur below the two 
central spots, replacing the usual ochreous-yellow blotch. 
The blue lunules are liable to vary in colour from pure blue 
to pale-lilac blue. 
