182 [March 



Notes upon GRAPTA COMMA, Harris, and GRAPTA FAUNUS, Edwards 

 (C-ALBiTM, of some Authors). 



BY W. H. EDWARDS. 



Dr. Harris describes Comma as distinct from the European C. album, 

 and seems not to have known Faun us ; which, instead of Comma, was the 

 species that had been supposed identical with C. album. Dr. Fitch (New 

 York Reports, &c., No. 3, page 241) appears, on the other hand, not to 

 have known Comma, for he considers it to be the same as our " C. album" 

 (Faunus), which itself, he thinks, can be nothing else than C. album of 

 Europe, according to Westwood's description of that species. 



Grapta Comma is a well-defined species. In the form of its wings, as 

 well as in color, it resembles Interrogationis, rather than Faunus. The 

 wings are much less indented, and their color is lighter, more inclining to 

 orange. The spots are of the same number and similarly disposed (as is 

 also the case in Progne), but in Faunus they are larger and darker, and 

 the marginal band is broader and blacker. Of the under side of Comma 

 Dr. Harris says : " It is marked with light and dark brown, the hind 

 wings with a silvery comma in the middle." Usually the whole under 

 side has a lilac tinge ; across the middle of the wings is an irregular 

 darker band ; within and along the hind margin of both wings is a row of 

 small blue spots, and anterior to this another row of minute hlack spots 

 ujyon the hrown ground. 



The female scarcely diifers in shape from the male, or in other respect, 

 above, but the under side is plain, with no marbling, and generally almost 

 black, darkest near base ; sometimes, however, it is dark brown, and one 

 bred specimen was yellow-brown, with the wings less indented. In all, the 

 marginal spots are almost obsolete. 



I found the larvae of Comma upon the broad-leafed nettle, in the forests 

 of the Catskill Mountains, in July, 1861, and raised to maturity twelve 

 individuals, about half which were females. My attention was first at- 

 tracted by observing certain leaves drooping, and more or less eaten. On 

 the under side of these I usually found the caterpillar, inactive, and never 

 more than one upon the same plant. The half-grown larvae were black, 

 with a yellowish stripe along the side from the third segment to the tail, 

 and with yellow stripes across the back and spots of same color at the base 

 of the dorsal spines, which were yellow, tipped with black. The mature 

 larvae were white, mottled or striped with grey or ashen, and with red 

 spiracles. The chrysalis was pale brown, with gold spots on the protu- 

 berances, and the butterfly appeared at the end of fourteen days. Besides 



