Fig. 163.—Red Admiral Butterfly (Vanessa Atalanta).
Fig. 164.—Painted Lady Butterfly (Vanessa [Cynthia] cardui).
The Red Admiral Butterfly (Vanessa Atalanta, [Fig. 163]) has bands of vermilion colour on the upper side of its wings, which are black above, and variegated beneath with different colours. The caterpillar is bristly and blackish, with a succession of spots of lemon- colour on its sides. It lives in solitude on the stinging-nettle (Urtica dioica). Its chrysalis is blackish, with golden spots. This magnificent insect is common at the end of summer, and easy to catch. If missed once it comes back again almost immediately, and almost alights on the net of the collector.
The Painted Lady (Vanessa [Cynthia] cardui, [Fig. 164]) owes its vernacular name to the beauty of its colours. The upper wings are covered above with tawny spots, rather cerise coloured towards the interior, and with white spots on the hind margin towards the tip of the wing; the whole on a lightish ground. The lower wings are of a reddish tawny colour with many black spots, a circular row of which borders the wing. The caterpillar is bristly, brownish, with yellow lateral broken lines. It lives in solitude on many species of thistle, on the artichoke, the milfoil or yarrow, &c. It makes for itself a web, rather like a spider's nest, and lives therein. The chrysalis is greyish, with numerous golden dots. The perfect insect shows itself almost without interruption, from spring till autumn. It flies rapidly, and in certain seasons is abundant.
Fig. 165.
The Comma Butterfly (Vanessa C. album).