[Illustration: _Pl._ 66. =Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary.= 1, 3, 4 _male_; 6 _do. (second brood)_; 7 _do. var._; 2, 5 _female_.] [Illustration: _Pl._ 67. =Heath Fritillary.= _Eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillar (after Buckler), and chrysalis._] Kane (_Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of Ireland_), referring to this species, remarks: "This butterfly has been known to increase so prodigiously that whole fields and roads became blackened by the moving myriads of larvæ. An instance of this was observed by the Rev. S.L. Brakey, near Ennis, Co. Clare, where he drove out to see a reported 'shower of worms,' and found as above described, the larvæ being so multitudinous in some fields that the black layer of insects seemed to roll in corrugations as the migrating hosts swarmed over each other in search of food. The imagines that resulted from the starved survivors were extremely small and faded in colour." These caterpillars are destroyed in great numbers by Hymenopterous parasites, chiefly _Apanteles_, and it is almost certain that a large percentage of those collected will prove to have been stung. The butterfly is on the wing in May and June, and seems to affect damp meadows, marshy ground on the sides of hills, and such kind of places. It does not necessarily occur wherever its food-plant is abundant, but scabious is always found to be present in the haunts of the butterfly; so if we know that the insect occurs in a particular district we should probably get a clue to its exact whereabouts by noting the likely places in that district where the food-plant flourishes. Although it has seemingly disappeared from various English localities where it was formerly common, the butterfly may be found in many parts of the British Islands, but it is local and does not occur northwards much beyond the Caledonian Canal. Abroad it spreads over Europe to Northern Africa, and its range extends eastward through Asia to Amurland and Corea. * * * * * The fine butterfly next in order is regarded as a member of the Danainæ by most authors. Although its generic position seems to be established, its proper place in the classification of butterflies is still unfixed; and even the question of its trivial or specific name is not finally settled. According to Kirby, this butterfly is _Anosia menippe_, Hübner, and not the true _Papilio plexippus_ of Linnæus, nor the _P. archippus_ of Cramer. American authors, however, consider it to be the Linnean _plexippus_, and give _menippe_ Hb. as a synonym. The species is here retained in Danainæ, but Holland places it in Euploeinæ and Skinner in the Family Lymnadidæ. The Milkweed Butterfly (_Anosia plexippus_).