Pl. 33.
White Admiral.
1, 3 male; 2, 4 female.
The chrysalis is brownish tinged with pink; the wing-cases and the rings of the body are edged with blackish; there is a greyish line along the back of the body and a brownish stripe along the spiracles; at the point where the body joins the thorax there are some silvery or golden spots. The figures of caterpillar and chrysalis on Plate [32] are after Buckler.
This butterfly seems to have disappeared from many localities in England where it formerly flourished. About seventy or eighty years ago, for example, it was plentiful in Epping Forest, in Herts, and in Dorset. During the last half-century or so it has been common in certain parts of many of the counties from Somerset to Durham and Cumberland, but seems to have occurred only sparingly or singly in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Kent, Sussex, Hants, Wilts, and Devon. It still occurs now and then in the Dover district, the most recent record being of one taken in October, 1894; and it was reported from North Staffordshire in 1893. Probably it is now almost entirely confined to favoured districts embraced within the area represented by the counties of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Monmouthshire, whence it may occasionally stray into the adjoining counties, or even further afield.
This butterfly is often associated with hop gardens, but it is by no means restricted to such places. The usual food-plants of the caterpillars are hop (Humulus lupulus), nettle (Urtica dioica), and currant (Ribes), but it is reported to eat gooseberry (R. grossularia) and elm (Ulmus).
Abroad it has a very wide distribution in Europe, and extends through Asia to Japan.
The Large Tortoiseshell (Vanessa polychloros).
Apart from its larger size, and somewhat different outline, this butterfly may be known from the Small Tortoiseshell by its duller colour, which is brownish-orange; on the fore wing there are, as a rule, no blue crescents in the hind marginal border, but there is an extra black spot placed between veins 1 and 2; on the hind wings a black spot on the front area represents the black basal area seen on the Small Tortoiseshell; and this is an important point of difference, although the two species are not likely to be confused when both are well known. The blue spots referred to as not usually present on the fore wings are stated to occur in specimens emerging from chrysalids that have been kept in a rather cold temperature for a certain length of time.