1891.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 45 



upon a hasty examination, might be mistaken for an abandoned 

 retreat of a mature larva. 



The larva is a dirty white or soiled green color, of a granular 

 appearance, with a large head, the body tapering slightly back- 

 ward. Before suspension it has become a watery green, and after 

 attaching itself to the silk button, it rests in a circular or loop- 

 like position, the head bent forward till it quite reaches the button. 



The pupa is usually of a beautiful green color, but sometimes 

 is speckled with brown, and occasionally of a brown tint alto- 

 gether, while rarely it is almost black. The abbreviated abdo- 

 men, the green color and appearance of the pupa in suspension 

 reminds the observer of the pupa of Archippus, but the resem- 

 blance is not striking. 



The pupal period is seven or eight days. For twelve hours 

 before giving the imago the color and markings of the wings in 

 miniature, beneath the pupal sheath, may be distinctly seen, and 

 it is as easy to distinguish the females from the males by the wing 

 band as it is among the imagos. 



The fresh imagos will hang in the cage for some time unless 

 crowded, without fluttering, and often when taken between the 

 thumb and finger after having been out four or five hours they 

 will fain death, sometimes dropping to the bottom of the cage 

 when an attempt is being made to remove them. This is oftener 

 the case, however, when they are fresh from the pupa and with 

 no strength of wing. I have noticed the same thing in Vanessa 

 antiopa, and perhaps this " 'possum policy" is common to many 

 diurnals. 



The male imagos differ little in color or markings, being a 

 uniform reddish brown with a darker border to the wings. An 

 occasional $ , however, displays a faint cross band on the forward 

 wings, or, more properly, the broken boundary lines of a band- 

 like field, and the same more rarely on the hind wings. 



The females differ much in color and the appearance of the 

 band. The unclerwings of the 9 vary from a reddish brown to 

 a yellowish brown. 



The females of the earlier broods have nearly a uniform color 

 over the entire wings, the band being merely outlined by bound- 

 ing lines, or if the band differ in color from the rest of the wing 

 it is not a noticeable difference. Moreover, the ground color of 

 these earlier females is a brownish red, but paler than in the males. 



