The New International Encyclopædia/Admiral (butterflies)

ADMIRAL. 1. In entomology, any of several nymphalid butterflies, ordinarily the “red” admiral (Pyrameis atalanta), common throughout North America, Europe, northern Asia, and Africa. It has an expanse of about 2½ inches, and is brown, the hinder wings broadly margined with red, including a row of four dark dots; the same color forms a curved diagonal band across the fore wings, beyond which the angle of the wing is spotted with white and edged with purple. (See Plate of American Butterflies.) The caterpillar is 1⅛ inches long, brown and spinous; the chrysalis is brown, naked, and suspended to the food-plant upon which the larva has fed, usually some species of nettle, hop, or related plant. Butterflies of the related genus Basilarchia are called white admirals.

2. In conchology, a cone (Conus ammiralis) whose shell was formerly rare and valuable.