The caterpillar is brown, with numerous yellowish spines, and has three whitish or yellowish stripes--one down the middle of the back and one along each side. It hybernates during the winter, and is fully grown in the following June or July. I hope that my reader will be so fortunate as to secure either this or some other stage of this rare and beautiful insect. The chances are decidedly against him, but that is no reason why he should abstain from a vigorous search when he happens to be 'doing' the southern counties. _The Dark-green Fritillary_ (_Argynnis Aglaia_) This butterfly is larger than _Latona_, as will be seen by reference to Plate II, fig. 8. Its colour is, as usual with the Fritillaries, a tawny brown with black markings. The female is usually larger than the male, and she is further distinguished by the ground colour being darker and the black markings larger. The under side of the fore wings is very similar in colour and markings to the upper, but there are silvery spots near the tips. The hind wings are beautifully tinted with olive green and brown, and studded with silver. The arrangement of the latter is not easily described, but is accurately represented in the accompanying woodcut. [Illustration: FIG. 70.--THE DARK-GREEN FRITILLARY--UNDER SIDE.] The favourite resorts of this insect are wooded spots, and also heaths and downs clad with heather or ferns, where its food plant (the dog violet) lies scattered; but it seems to be less partial to woods than the other Fritillaries. It is very widely distributed throughout England, and is common in parts of Scotland and Ireland. The perfect insect is on the wing in July and early August. The caterpillar first appears toward the end of August, and commences its period of hybernation among the roots of its food plant before it has grown to any considerable size. It comes out again in the spring, and continues to feed till the beginning or middle of July, and then changes to the chrysalis state, after protecting itself by binding three or four leaves together. Its colour is a velvety black, with dark and glossy grey between the segments. There is a double yellow line along the back, and a thin line of orange yellow on each side below the spiracles. It has a number of black hairy spines, arranged in six longitudinal rows. The chrysalis is of a shiny black colour, with brownish abdomen; and the conical projections are black with yellow tips. _The High-brown Fritillary_ (_Argynnis Adippe_) The upper side of this butterfly is so much like that of _Aglaia_ that it would be difficult indeed to give a written description of one that did not almost equally well apply to the other; so we look to the under surface for the chief marks by which we can distinguish between them.