The Wall Butterfly just emerged from the Chrysalis, and with wings distended.
The ground colour varies in tint, darker or lighter than normal, but specimens of a bright golden yellow-brown, straw colour, or whitish are known to occur, although such extreme aberrations are exceptional.
The egg is pale green when first laid, and in shape it is almost spherical, but rather higher than broad; it is finely ribbed and reticulated, but unless examined through a lens it appears to be quite smooth.
The caterpillar when full grown is whitish-green, dotted with white. From the larger of these dots on the back arise greyish bristles; the three lines on the back (dorsal and subdorsal) are whitish, edged with dark green; the line on the sides (spiracular) is white, fringed with greyish hairs; anal points green, hairy, extreme tips white. Head larger than the first ring (1st thoracic segment), green dotted with white and hairy, jaws marked with brownish. It feeds on grasses.
The chrysalis is green, with yellow-tinted white markings on the edge of the wing covers and ridges; the spots on the body are yellowish, or sometimes white. Occasionally the chrysalids are blackish, with white or yellow points on the body.
Larger Image
Pl. 84.
Meadow Brown.