448 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



Larva.— Four dorsal cream-white or pale brownish tufts. Anterior black tufts pro- 

 jecting forwards from the prothoracic ring. Head round and smooth, nearly black, 

 pale reddish on the sides. Body often black, a row of lateral bright red warts giving 

 rise to yellow hairs. Only two dorsal coral-red warts, the one next to the last cream- 

 colored ; short tuft wanting, but there is on each side (what Orgiiia leucostigma wants) a 

 row of three subdorsal reddish warts. The black, broad dorsal stripe so distinct in 

 O. leucostigma is broken up by these warts and by brown patches. The terminal tuft 

 is as in 0. lencostigma but blacker. The main distinction is in the large black lateral 

 pencil on the second abdominal segment with a slighter and shorter pencil in front and 

 {sometimes) behind, yellow, with a few black hairs. The other hairs are quite dense 

 and buff-yellow. A broken black stigmatal line. Under side of body pale greenish 

 yellow. Length S")'""". 



14. The antiopa butterfly. 



Vanessa antiopa (Linn.) 



Although I have more usually observed the gregarious caterpillar of 

 this commoQ butterfly feeding on the willow in clusters in mid-summer, 

 it also occurs on the poplar, balm of Gilead, birch, and linden. The 

 butterfly hybernates, appearing in New England (including Maine) 

 sometimes as early as March. It is seen until June, then disappears, 

 to be succeeded by a new brood about the middle of August, the insect 

 having been in the chrysalis state eleven or twelve days. The second 

 brood of caterpillars appear in August and transforms before cold 

 weather into butterflies. The caterpillars are sometimes very destruc- 

 tive. Says Harris : 



I have sometimes seen them in such profusion on the willow and elm that the limbs 

 bent under their weight, and the long leafless branches, which they had stripped 

 and deserted, gave sufficient proof of the voracity of these caterpillars. 



Mrs. Anna K. Dimmock gives a summary of its history (Psyche, iv, 



p. 282) as follows : 



Vanessa antio2)a Liiun. (Syst. Nat., ITfiS ed., 10, p. 476). Besides numerous refer- 

 ences in European literature, in which Salix, Populvs, Betiila, and Tilia are noticed 

 as food-plants, the following citations of American authors may be mentioned. Har- 

 ris (Rept. Ins. Injur. Veg., 1841, p. 219, and Eutom. Corresp., 1869, p. 280) describes 

 the larva of this species, adding Ulmus as food-plant; later (Treatise on Ins. Injur. 

 Veg., 1862, p. 296-298) he figures and describes larva, pupa, and imago. Packard 

 (Guide Study Ins., 1869, p. 258) and Saunders (Can. Entom., April 1869, v. 1, p. 75) 

 describe the larva. (See also Scudder's Butterflies of the Eastern United States.) 



Larva. — Head black, rough, and tuberculated ; six or seven large, long black 

 branched spines on each segment behind the prothoracic; body black, minutely 

 speckled with white; with a row of eight dark brick-red dorsal spots. Length, If 

 inches (40"""). 



Pupa. — Dark brown, with large tawny spots around the two rims of sharp tuber- 

 cles on the back. Length 25-90™"'. 



Butterfly. — Borders of the wings much notched ; purplish brown above, with a 

 broad bulf-yellow border, in which is a row of pale blue spots. Expanse of wings, 

 3-3^ inches (75™™). 



15. Limenitis arthemis (Drury). (Basilarchia arlhemis Scudder). 



This butterfly is a northern species, occurring in the Adirondacks and 

 White Mountains, where early in July it is sometimes very abundant, 

 gathering by the hundreds in the bright sun around puddles In the 



