Part 16

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.

The _Vanessa (Grapta) C. album_ (Fig. 165), or Comma Butterfly, is common in parts of England. Above, its wings are tawny, spotted with black. Below, they are more or less brown, with different tints, and sometimes a little blue. On the under side of the lower wings is a white spot of the form of a C. "This spot," says old Geoffroy, "caused this butterfly to have the name of _gamma_ given to it, and its colour of _Diable enrhumé_ (_sic_), as also the singular cut of its wings, has caused it to be called by others _Robert le Diable_." Its caterpillar lives on the nettle, the honeysuckle, the currant, the hazel, and the elm. It is of a reddish brown, with a white band on the back. Réaumur calls it the Beadle, comparing it to the church beadles, who usually dress in glaring colours.

The brilliant _Vanessæ_, of which we have just briefly described some remarkable species, have been the cause of superstitious terror. This must at first sight seem incredible, but it has arisen thus: When they have just quitted the pupa, a red-coloured liquid drops from them. If a great many butterflies are hatched at the same time, and in the same place, the ground becomes, as it were, sprinkled with drops of blood. Hence the origin of some of those pretended _showers of blood_, which, at different periods, have terrified the ignorant, too much imbued with religious superstitions.

At the beginning of the month of July, 1608, one of these supposed showers of blood fell on the outskirts of Aix, in Provence, and this _rain_ extended for the distance of half a league from the town. Some priests of the town deceived themselves, or, desirous of turning to account the credulity of the people, did not hesitate to attribute this event to Satanic agency. Fortunately, a learned man, M. de Peiresc, who was not only well versed in the knowledge of ancient literature, but who was, moreover, familiar with the natural sciences, discovered that a prodigious multitude of butterflies were flying about in the places which were thus miraculously covered with blood. He collected some chrysalides and put them into a box, and letting them hatch there, observed the blood-like liquid, and hastened to make it known to the friends of the miraculous. He established the fact that the supposed drops of blood were only found in cavities, in interstices, under the copings of walls, &c., and never on the surface of stones turned upwards; and proved by these observations that they were drops of a red liquid deposited by the butterflies.

However, in spite of the reassuring remarks of the learned Peiresc, the people in the outskirts of Aix continued to feel a genuine terror at the sight of these tears of blood which stained the soil. Peiresc attributes to this same cause some other showers of blood related by historians, and which took place about the same season. Such was a shower which was supposed to have fallen in the time of Childebert, at Paris, and in a house in the territory of Senlis. Such again was a so-called bloody shower which showed itself towards the end of June, during the reign of King Robert of France. Réaumur points out the large Tortoise-shell as being the most capable of spreading these sorts of alarms, founded on a deplorable ignorance and the spirit of superstition.

"Thousands," says he, "change into pupæ towards the end of May or the beginning of June. Before their transformation they leave the trees, often fastening themselves to walls, and, making their way into country-houses, they suspend themselves to the frames of doors, &c. If the butterflies which come out of them towards the end of June or the beginning of July were all to fly together, there would be enough of them to form little clouds or swarms, and consequently there would be enough to cover the stones in certain localities with spots of a blood-red colour, and to make those who only seek to terrify themselves, and to see prodigies in everything, believe that during the night it had rained blood."

In the family of _Nymphalidæ_, we will first mention the White Admiral (Fig. 166). The upper side of its wings is of a dark brown, almost black, traversed in the middle by a white band divided into spots very close to each other. The lower part of the wings is ferruginous, with a band and spots of white, as on the upper, besides which it has a double hinder transverse row of black dots. These dots are followed on the hind wings by some white spots, and the whole of the inner margin is of a glossy ashy blue, with the base spotted with black. This butterfly is not rare in the month of July in woods in the south of England, where it flies round and settles upon the branches of the underwood. The caterpillar is of a delicate green, with a lateral white stripe, and rather bristly. It feeds on honeysuckle. The pupa is angular, of greenish colour, with golden spots.

The _Limenitis camilla_ (Fig. 167), of which the black on the wings is shot with blue, is not found in England.

In the month of July the _Apatura ilia_ (Fig. 168) and the Purple Emperor (_Apatura iris_), sylvan insects of strong flight, whose wings are beautifully shot with violet blue when examined in certain lights--the latter resembling _Ilia_, but wanting the eye-like spots on the front wings--are met with. _Iris_ only is found in this country. Both species occur in the environs of Paris.

The _Charaxes jasius_ (Fig. 169), which is found along the whole of the Mediterranean coast, has its lower wings terminated in two points, whence the peasants call this butterfly the _Pacha with two tails_. The upper part of its wings is of a brown colour of changing hues. The hind margin of the fore wings has along it a tawny band with a fine black line running round. The hind wings have their hinder margin black, and garnished with a little white fringe. The two tails are black, and the groove of the inner margin is of an ashy grey. The underneath of the wings is ferruginous, with spots of an olive brown set in a framework of white towards the base.

The caterpillar is green, and flat like a slug, with four yellow horns bordered with red (Fig. 170). It lives on the arbutus, a shrub common enough on the hills and mountains of the coast of the Mediterranean.

To the family of the _Satyridi_ belongs the _Erebia Euryale_ (Fig. 171), which is found in the month of July in sub-alpine regions; the _Chionobas aello_ (Fig. 172), which is found in the Alps of Switzerland, of the Tyrol, and of Savoy, and which is common enough, in the month of July, on the summit of Montanvers, near the _mer de glace_; the _Satyrus janira_, or Meadow Brown (Fig. 173), which is very common, in the months of June and July, in woods and fields.

We now pass on to the second section of Lepidoptera.

It contains _those whose flight in the majority of species is nocturnal or by twilight, but by day in some species. The antennæ are more or less swollen out in the middle or before their extremities, and, independently of that, sometimes prismatic, sometimes cylindrical, sometimes pectinated or indented. The body--which was small in comparison to the wings, and which was remarkably thin between the thorax and the abdomen in the first section of Lepidoptera--is in this section very much larger in proportion to the wings, and is not drawn tightly in between the thorax and the abdomen. The wings are horizontal or slightly inclined when the insect is at rest; the upper then cover the lower, which are generally comparatively short and kept back by a bridle on the first, in the case of the males only._

We will take the genus _Sesia_ as the representative of the _Sesiidæ_. These singular insects have membranous wings, and resemble various species of Hymenoptera. The largest species is the _Sesia apiformis_ (Fig. 174), that is, bee-like, which is found in this country, resting on the trunks of willows and poplar-trees, from the end of May till the middle of July. It resembles a hornet, and is of the same size and has the same colours; only they are not quite so bright. When this moth is just hatched its wings are ferruginous; but its scales, light and caducous, fall as soon as the insect begins to fly. The caterpillar, which lives in the trunks or roots of willows and poplar-trees, is of a yellowish colour. The pupa is long, of a brownish colour, enclosed in a cocoon composed of agglutinated saw-dust, the product of the caterpillar's erosions.

In the middle of summer the meadows are frequented by moths, with brilliant black and velvety wings, marked with red, which fly heavily, and only for a short time together. They remain motionless during the great heat of the day. These are the _Zygænæ_, or Burnets, of the family of the _Zygænidæ_. The Ram Sphinx of Geoffroy, or the Six-spot Burnet Moth (_Zygæna filipendulæ_, Fig. 175), is common from the end of June till the beginning of August. Its legs, antennæ, head, and body are black and rather hairy; its upper wings are of a brilliant bluish green, with six spots of a beautiful red on each, bordered by a little green. The caterpillar is yellow, spotted with black; its cocoon is boat-shaped, with longitudinal furrows, and is straw colour (Fig. 176).

Next to _Zygæna_ comes _Procris_, the species of which fly during the day in damp fields. We will mention particularly the _Procris statices_ (Fig. 177), which is plentiful enough where it occurs between the middle of June and the middle of July, on the sides of hills. Its fore wings, antennæ, and the whole of its body, are of a blue green above. The same wings are of the same colour below, and the surfaces of the lower ones are of an ashy brown.

The Sphinges, that is, those species that form the family of the _Sphingidæ_, have received this general name from the attitude which their caterpillars often assume. Raising the fore part of the body, which attitude resembles the Sphinx of mythology, they keep for a very long time this state of immobility. They fly very rapidly and briskly, and only make their appearance for the most part after sunset. The caterpillars, which in this group are without hair, and have almost always a horn on the eleventh segment of the body, metamorphose themselves in the earth, without forming hard cocoons. The chrysalis are sometimes enveloped in a very slight shell, or cocoon, which when it exists is formed of particles of earth or of vegetable _débris_ bound together by threads. This family comprises species generally remarkable for their size and beauty.

The genus _Macroglossa_ contains some species which fly rapidly and for a long time together during the day. We will mention particularly the Humming-bird Sphinx (_Macroglossa stellatarum_). This moth (Fig. 178) has attracted the attention of all who have ever spent much time in a flower garden. In Burgundy the children call it _bird-fly_. In passing from one flower to another it has brisk and rapid movements, but it remains suspended in the air before each; it does not alight upon any, it is always flying, thrusting its long trunk the while into the corollæ of flowers, counterbalancing the action of its weight by the continuous vibration of its wings.

We will describe in a few words this robust inhabitant of the air, this charming _bird-fly_. The _Macroglossa stellatarum_ shows itself during the whole of the fine season, and till the middle of autumn, in our climate. It often penetrates in the middle of the day into our houses, and knocking itself against the window-panes, falls an easy prey to children. Its front wings are of an ashy brown, of changing hues above, with three black, transverse, undulating lines. The lower, shorter than the others, are of a rusty-yellow colour. All the wings are yellowish below near the body, ferruginous in the middle, and of a dark brown at their extremities.

The body is long, brown, hairy, and terminating in a tuft of divergent hairs, reminding one of a bird's tail. It is for this reason that it has been called by the French _Sphinx Moineau_, or Sparrow Sphinx. This resemblance is so great, that Mr. Bates, in his book on the Amazons, says he often shot species of this genus in mistake for humming-birds. The caterpillar of this remarkable Lepidopteron (Fig. 179) is of a pale green, with eight transversal rows of small white dots and four longitudinal rows, of which two are white and two yellowish. It has a dark blue horn, with an orange-coloured tip. It lives on different species of bed-straw, but by preference on the _Galium mollugo_. Before its metamorphosis, it encloses itself in a shapeless cocoon, made of the _débris_ of leaves held together by threads, and placed on the surface of the ground. The pupa (Fig. 180) is of a light grey, sprinkled over with brown dots, and striped with black. Its skin is so thin and transparent that one can follow it through all the phases of transformation to the imago.

The genus _Deilephila_ is composed of species whose flight is rapid, and after sunset. Such are the _Deilephila euphorbiæ_, the Oleander Hawk-Moth (_Deilephila_ [_Chærocampa_] _nerii_), and the large Elephant Hawk-Moth (_Deilephila_ [_Chærocampa_] _elpenor_).

The _Deilephila euphorbiæ_ (Fig. 181) has the upper wings of a reddish grey, with three spots of greenish or olive colour along the costa, or front margin, and a broad black oblique band along the hind margin. The lower wings are red, with the base black, and a transverse black band towards the edge; they have, moreover, a large round white spot on the inside; beneath the wings are red, as also is the body, which is covered above with greenish hairs. This species is exceedingly rare here, but is plentiful on the Continent during the months of June and September.

The larva (Fig. 182) is one of the most remarkable of the genus on account of the splendour and the vividness of its colours, and appears to be covered with varnish. It has a number of small yellow dots very close to each other on a glossy black ground, which are ranged in circles. On each side of the body are two longitudinal rows of spots generally of the same colour as the dots, and a narrow band of carmine runs down the middle of the back, and a similar band, which is intersected by yellow, is to be seen above the legs. This caterpillar is almost always found on the Cyprus-leafed spurge. It is found first at the end of June. Generally the chrysalis passes through the winter, and the moth emerges in the following year.

The _Deilephila (Chærocampa) nerii_ (Fig. 183), or Oleander Hawk-Moth, is a charming species almost peculiar to hot countries, where the shrub from which it derives its name grows spontaneously--that is to say, in Africa, in the southern parts of Asia, in Greece, in Spain, &c. Carried forward by its rapid flight, and assisted by atmospheric currents, these beautiful insects sometimes come accidentally into the countries of Central Europe. They have been met with many times in Paris, in the garden of the Luxembourg, where the oleander is cultivated under glass. But those which are hatched in the environs of Paris never reproduce their species, on account of the coldness of the climate. Both larva and imago--the former on periwinkle--_have_ been found in the same locality.

The caterpillar of this species (Fig. 184) is one of those called by the French _Cochonnes_, because their two first rings, which are retractile and drawn back under the third when the insect is at rest, taper in such a way as to resemble the snout of a pig, hence the English name "Elephant," when they change their place or are engaged in eating. It is of a beautiful green, with white stripes and dots on the sides, and marked on the third segment with two large spots like eyes, of an azure blue, encircled with black, and having white pupils. A short orange-coloured horn rises at the extremity of the body. A few days before its transformation, this caterpillar entirely loses its rich livery, it becomes brown on the back, and of a dirty yellow on the rest of its body, and constructs for itself a cocoon at the foot of the shrub on which it lived, with the _débris_ of leaves fastened together with threads.

The cocoon contains a chrysalis (Fig. 185) of a hazel brown, delicately streaked with a darker brown, and with a very conspicuous black spot on each of its stigmata.

The Elephant Hawk-Moth (_Deilephila_ [_Chærocampa_] _elpenor_, Fig. 186) is not rare during the month of June. Its fore wings are purple red, glossy above, with three bands of a light olive green, having at the base a small black spot. The inner margin is garnished with white hairs. The hind wings are of a dark rose colour above, with the base black, and the hind margin bordered with white. The four wings are rose coloured below, with the costa and the middle of an olive green; the upper ones have their interior border tinged with a blackish colour. The body is rose colour, with two longitudinal bands of an olive green over the abdomen, and five diverging lines of this colour on the thorax. The sides of the abdomen have along them a double series of yellowish points.

The caterpillar of this sphinx (Fig. 187) is of a dark brown, delicately striped with black. Two grey lines run down each side of its body, and on the fourth and fifth segments are two black eyes bordered by light violet. This caterpillar is found most often on certain kinds of _Epilobium_, but will also eat of the vine, fuchsia, and bed-straw. It must be sought in damp places, by streams and ponds, from the end of July till September. It constructs on the surface of the soil a shapeless cocoon with moss and dry leaves, which it fastens together with some silky threads. Its pupa (Fig. 188), of a yellowish brown, has short bristles on the rings of the abdomen. The caterpillar possesses in the highest degree the retractile power which has gained for certain species of this genus their popular names. The Privet Sphinx (_Sphinx ligustri_, Fig. 189) has its upper wings rather narrow, about two inches long, of a reddish grey, and veined with black above, with the middle of a dark brown, the inner margin with rose-coloured hairs, and the hind margin having two whitish flexuous lines running along it. The hind wings are of a rose tint, with three black bands. The wings are of a reddish grey below with a common black band. The abdomen has black and rose-coloured rings above, and in the middle a brownish band wholly divided by a black line.

This species is very common in all parts of Europe. One finds it in gardens from June to September. Of all the caterpillars of the genus _Sphinx_, this is the one which, by its attitude when in a state of repose, most resembles the sphinx of fable, from which the genus has derived its name. It is of fine apple green, with seven oblique stripes, half violet and half white, placed on each side of its body, and three or four small white spots beyond these stripes. The stigmata are orange, the head is green, bordered with black. The extremity of the body is surrounded by a smooth horn, black above, yellow below (Fig. 190). This beautiful caterpillar is not rare. It lives on a great number of trees and shrubs, but it is principally on the privet, the lilac, and the ash tree, that it must be looked for. Three or four days before it buries itself in the earth to change itself into a chrysalis, its beautiful colours grow dim. During the month of June and September is found the Convolvulus Sphinx (_Sphinx convolvuli_, Fig. 192), with brown wings, and with the abdomen striped with transverse bands alternately black and red. The caterpillar of this species, which presents a great number of varieties, lives on many kinds of _Convolvuli_, but particularly on the field species. It is generally rare here, but occasionally abundant.