The under surface of the fore wings has the same ground colour with the exception of the tips, which are yellow; and the whole is marked with black, as in the illustration. The hind wings are pale yellow, with two broad bands of brown corresponding with those of _Cinxia_; but a series of black double arches along the hind margin and the _absence_ of rows of black spots serve to distinguish this species from the last. _Athalia_ is another local butterfly, but is sometimes found in abundance in the spots which it frequents. It is met with chiefly in the open spaces of woods along the south coast and for some distance inland. Devon, Cornwall, Sussex, and Kent seem to be the most favoured counties; and London entomologists would do well to search for it in Epping Forest. The butterfly deposits its eggs during June and July, on several different food plants, the chief of which are the greater and narrow-leaved plantains (_Plantago major_ and _P. lanceolata_), foxglove (_Digitalis purpurea_), two species of cow-wheat (_Melampyrum pratense_ and _M. sylvaticum_), wood sage (_Teucrium Scorodonia_), and the germander speedwell (_Veronica Chamaedrys_), and the young caterpillars, after feeding for only a week or two, commence their period of hybernation. They resume their feeding in April, and change to the pupal state about the end of May. The colour of the caterpillar is velvety black, finely dotted with white, and the spines are yellow or orange, tipped with white. The chrysalis is creamy white, banded and patched with orange and black, and is suspended by anal hooks from a silken, carpet which the caterpillar had spun on the leaf of the food plant. _The Comma_ (_Vanessa C-Album_) Leaving the Fritillaries, we now come to a genus (Vanessa) that includes seven most beautiful butterflies, some of which are so common as to be known to almost everybody. It will be observed that this genus belongs to the same family as the Fritillaries, and we may therefore expect to find that the two groups possess features in common. A slight examination of a few in their different stages will show that this is so. Thus, the perfect insects have only four walking legs, the caterpillars are all spiny, and the chrysalides are angular. [Illustration: FIG. 75.--THE COMMA--UNDER SIDE.] There is another feature concerning the chrysalides worthy of note. Like some of the pupae of the Fritillaries, they are adorned more or less with brilliant metallic spots, sometimes of a rich golden hue, and sometimes resembling burnished silver. Now the word 'chrysalis,' which, as we have already seen, is derived from a Greek word meaning 'gold,' was originally applied to the pupae of some of the Vanessas, on account of their metallic decorations, but it has since been extended to the pupae of all the Lepidoptera, and also to other orders of insects, even though the greater number of them display no tints of the precious metal.