PLATE XII1. Azure Blue2. Brimstone
PLATE XII
1. Azure Blue2. Brimstone
I do not know why this pretty butterfly is called the “Azure†Blue; for azure is a very bright blue indeed, and yet the insect is not nearly so brilliantly coloured as the Clifton blue. Indeed, it is lilac in colour, rather than blue. But sometimes it is called the “Holly Blue,†and that is a very much better name for it; for one often sees it flying along by the side of holly hedges, while the caterpillar feeds upon holly blossoms, as well as upon those of buckthorn and ivy. It is the first of all the “blues†to appear in the spring, and you may sometimes see it even in April. And generally there is another brood towards the end of the summer.
You can easily tell the female of this butterfly from the male, for her front wings have a broad black border, while that on the wings of her mate is very narrow indeed. The caterpillar is greenish-yellow in colour, with a black head and black legs, and a bright green streak running along the middle of the back. When it has reached its full size it turns into a small yellowish-brown chrysalis.
This very handsome insect is common in almost all parts of the country, and is one of the very first butterflies to be seen in the spring. On warm, sunny days in March, or even in February, you may often meet with it. For it is one of those butterflies which “hibernateâ€â€”that is, it comes out of the chrysalis in the summer or early autumn, and then sleeps all through the winter in some snug retreat, from which it is always ready to come out for an hour or two when the weather is a little warmer and finer than usual.
The male Brimstone is a good deal handsomer than the female, for his wings are of a bright daffodil colour, while those of his mate are pale greenish-yellow. The caterpillar feeds on the young leaves of buckthorn bushes, and is dull green in colour, sprinkled all over with tiny black spots, from each of which sprouts a slender white bristle, and the chrysalis, which is fastened by a silken belt round its body to a twig of the food-plant, is bright apple-green marked with yellow and purple-brown.