PLATE 11
1. Larva of [Large Garden White]
2. Pupa of [Large Garden White]
3. [Ichneumon] Cocoons
4. Dipterous Parasite of [Large G. White]
5. [Ichneumon] Flies hatched from 3
6. Pupa of [Small Tortoiseshell]
7. Larva of [Small Tortoiseshell]
8. Larva and Pupa of [Glanville Fritillary]
9. Larva of [Greasy Fritillary]
The Peacock Butterfly (Vanessa Io), [Plate V.], Fig. 7.—This beautiful species is too well known, and too distinct in its colour and pattern to require any written description.
Few butterflies possess a name which so aptly describes them, and to make a mistake in its identification is hardly possible. All its efforts seem to have been exspended on the ornamentation of the upper surface, for the under side has hardly an attractive note. Dark and sombre though it be, it is well adapted for concealment during its period of hibernation.
The caterpillar is black, with bands of white dots round each segment, and the spines are larger than in the Small Tortoiseshell. It feeds in batches on Nettles, from June to August. The chrysalis inclines to green and has burnished spots. This species is common in England, and is occasionally met with in the South and West of Scotland.
The Camberwell Beauty (Vanessa Antiopa), [Plate V.], Fig. 6. —Why does not this handsome butterfly settle down amongst us, increase and multiply, and thus swell the little band of real natives who gladden the eye of the entomologist on his country rambles? It is a common insect over most of the Continent, and most abundant in North America, well up into Canada, where the winter is extremely severe. We have the food-plant in abundance, yet it is questionable if ever the Camberwell Beauty has been found in any but the winged state in this country. Records there are of its capture year after year, but there never seems to be progeny left by these occasional visitors. The wings are a dark chocolate-brown, bordered with creamy white. Between the brown and the white is a broad black band studded with blue spots; there are also two white spots on the costal margin near the tip of the fore-wing. It measures from 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 inches in expanse, North American specimens being the largest.
The caterpillar is black, with white dots, and has a row of red spots along the back. The pro-legs are also red, spines black. It feeds on the Willow. The chrysalis is brown, with darker spots; its abdominal points are sharp and angular. Single specimens of this species occur in most seasons from August to October, generally in the South, but it has been recorded for Scotland on several occasions.
The Red Admiral (Vanessa Atalanta), [Plate VIII.], Fig. 1.—He must have been a poet who first conceived so appropriate a name for this gallant rover. Possibly he was living long ago—
“When Britons truly ruled the waves,
In good Queen Bess’s glorious days,”
or later, when Nelson’s old “wooden walls” spread their bellying sails to catch the breeze. Those were days of romance. Fancy the Admiral of a super-Dreadnought—that big, black abortion of coal and iron—being associated with a butterfly! We would rather peer into the future and elect our aerial commander the “Red Admiral” of a fleet of graceful aeroplanes. This would certainly be more appropriate.