368 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



On the variation in tlie larva see Edwards, Can. ent., xii : 12-ia. 



Chrysalis (83 : 32, 37, 38). Head and front white tinted with pale olivaceous, ver- 

 miculate with salmon creases ; the basal joint of the antennae and the ocellar prom- 

 inences, excepting beneath, dusky olivaceous, often marked with brown or blackish 

 fuscous. Ocellar prominences not very long, with the basal half scarcely tapering, at 

 the middle with a slight notch, leaving outside a very small tubercle, separated from 

 the apical half which is conical and curved a little inward, the inner margin of the 

 Avhole prominence forming with its mateal)road U with curving sides ; middle joints of 

 legs heavily, and base of tongue slightly, tinted with dark olivaceous ; the basal half of 

 the antennae more or less marked with pale olivaceous. "Wings salmon buff on an 

 obscure whitish ground, or gleaming silvery white with a nacreous tint; they are more 

 or less suftused or tinged in broad streaks with pale olivaceous, especially near the 

 tip and across the middle on the anterior slopes of the elevations ; exposed surface of 

 under wings, next the tirst abdominal segment, fuscous. Thorax salmon bufl' like the 

 wings and streaked as there; or pale salmon white longitudinally, and obliquely 

 streaked with pale, delicate green, the edge of the dorsal prominence sometimes 

 black; first four abdominal segments pale or bufl-salmon, sometimes irregularly dis- 

 colored with greenish brown; the metathorax aud first two abdominal segments with 

 pretty large, laterodorsal, nacreous spots; the first abdominal segment with a similar 

 dorsal spot ; laterodorsal tubercles of fourth abdominal segment scarcely larger than 

 the others ; behind the fourth segment the abdomen is of a duller or dirtier salmon 

 color; the abdomen is marked with a pale salmon colored dorsal streak, bordered with 

 greenish, or with subdorsal triangular patches of olivaceous which are more distinct 

 at their posterior extremities; fifth and succeeding segments with a distinct, broad, 

 dark olivaceous, stigmatal stripe, sometimes blotched with black, narrowing poste- 

 riorly and serrate above; followed beneath by a very broad, pale, substigraatal band, 

 streaked obliquely with greenish along the middle; there is also a broad, ventral, pale 

 greenish band, fainter posteriorly ; the suprastigmatal warts are black ; all the tuber- 

 cles are salmon colored, greenish or pale with black tips, excepting sometimes the last 

 subdorsal pair ; tliere are a few short, transverse, fuscous punctures on the first to 

 fourth abdominal segments. Spiracles black, narrowly and faintly edged with whitish. 

 Cremaster above whitish, longitudinally streaked with fuscous; beneath blackish fus- 

 cous, the rim pale, sides blackish. Length, 22 to 23.25 mm. ; ocellar prominences, 

 2 mm. apart at tip ; width of head at base of ocellar prominences, 3.5 mm. ; width of 

 thorax, G.9 mm. ; of abdomen, 7.5 mm. ; height of thorax, (i.l mm. ; of abdomen, 6.75 

 mm. 



Distribution (19:0). The range of this butterfly corresponds very 

 closely with the upper half of that of P. interrogationis, but the limits 

 are slightly removed to the northward ; although most properly considered 

 a member of the Alleghanian fauna, it is not found in abundance toward 

 the extreme southern limits of that district, while on the north it more fre- 

 quently and considerably invades the region of the Canadian fauna. Mr. 

 Uhler considers it rare in Maryland, but Mr. Edwards states that it is com- 

 mon at Elk River, West Virginia, though it is not found near by at Coal- 

 burgh, Kanawha Co. ; these are apparently its southernmost stations, for it 

 has not been reported in other southern localities where P. comma seems 

 to be abundant ; the original habitat given by Cramer (''Jamaica") is 

 unquestionably erroneous, as well as the enumeration of this butterfly 

 among the Cuban species by Lucas in Sagra's Cuba. In the north it 

 occurs at Quebec (Bowles), Montreal (Caulfield), Ottawa (Billings), 

 Sault, Lake Superior (Bethune), the Lake of the Woods and Dufferin 



