204 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



excavation ; wing cases raised, flaring at base, compressed in middle, with 

 a prominent point on the margin on dorsal side ; on the abdomen three 

 rows of tubercles, those corresponding to the dorsal row of the larva 

 minute, to the first laterals large and conical, the pair on middle of the 

 series particularly prominent ; those in the excavation gilded ; color vari- 

 able, in shades of brown from light yellow to dark, often clouded with 

 olivaceous or lilac ; sometimes a dark green stripe on the side of abdomen 

 below wing cases. Duration of this stage from 7 to 1 1 days, according to 

 the weather. 



Grapta Interrogationis is found over the entire United States, except 

 on the Pacific slope, flying from Arizona to Montana and through Canada 

 to Nova Scotia. In the northern States, and probably in Canada, it is 

 two-brooded, but in West Virginia there are three broods, and a more or 

 less successful effort for a fourth, depending on the weather late in the 

 fall. In Florida there are at least four broods, and probably five. At 

 Coalburgb, eggs laid by hybernating females give butterflies last of May. 

 This is the first brood of the season. Eggs laid early in June give butter- 

 flies early in July — the second brood. Eggs laid last of July give butter- 

 flies in September — the third brood. Eggs laid through September give 

 butterflies in October. Individuals of each brood are emerging for some 

 weeks, say for a month, so that the earlier females may be laying eggs 

 while the later members of the same brood are coming from chrysalis. 

 But in case of the fourth brood, it often can be only the earliest hatched 

 larvae which produce butterflies, because by ist October we are apt to 

 have frost and cold weather, and the food is thereby destroyed. But in 

 some seasons frost holds off till late in the fall, and then the greater part 

 of the larvae might reach chrysalis. As stated in Can. Ent., x., p. 72, I 

 think it probable that the butterflies of the third brood do not hybernate, 

 but that the continuance of the species depends on the individuals of the 

 fourth brood, usually but few in number. This would account for the 

 species being so rare in this district late in the fall and early in spring as 

 compared with Comma, which has no fourth brood. The Comma butter- 

 flies of the third brood are the hybernators, and are to be seen in multi- 

 tudes before winter, or in November. Whereas Interrogationis then is 

 rarely seen. And yet in midsummer it is as common as is the other species. 



Interrogationis is a seasonally dimorphic species, the two forms being 

 also very distinct in both shape and coloration. They are figured in 

 Butterflies of N. A, Vol. i. The hybernating form is Fabricii, but in one 



