TORTOISE-SHELL BUTTERFLY.
(Vanessa urticæ.)
The Caterpillar, which feeds on the nettle, is about an inch in length, covered with bristles, and of a reddish brown colour. After having changed its skin three times when in the shape of a Caterpillar, it crawls up to a branching part of the stalk; and, hanging itself by the hinder part or tail, swells and bursts in such a curious way, that the Caterpillar’s skin drops to the ground, and the chrysalis, or aurelia, remains suspended; till after a fortnight of torpor it bursts its skin again, and escapes into the air, under the beautiful form of a variegated Butterfly. The golden line which shines through the pupa case of this Butterfly is supposed to have suggested the words chrysalis and aurelia, both of which signify golden. The wings of the perfect insect are about two inches in extent, of a deep orange colour above, and their base and hinder margin black, with a series of blue crescents. These Butterflies, which are very common in England, appear in spring, and at the end of June and beginning of September.