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. [Illustration: Fig. 165.--The Comma Butterfly (_Vanessa C. album_).] 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.