THE TRIBE OF THE ANGLE- WINGS 151 



marked with dark brown upon a ground of orange-brown» 

 The under surface has a bark-like effect in brownish gray 

 brought about by rather indefinite markings of varying 

 tone. The most characteristic feature is a distinct silver 

 semicolon on the middle of the under surface of each hind 

 wing. This marking closely resembles the Greek inter- 

 rogation point and so the species was given the specific 

 name inter rogationis by Fabricius early in the history of 

 science. It has since often been called the interrogation 

 butterfly as a translation of its Latin name, but in as much 

 as the marking on the wings is not at all hke the English in- 

 terrogation point, this has led to considerable confusion and 

 people have considered it a misnomer. It has also been 

 called the Semicolon butterfly which is correct enough so 

 far as this most characteristic feature is concerned; but it 

 leads to confusion in connection with the Latin name. 

 The recent practice seems the better, which is to call it 

 the Violet-tip butterfly. 



Life-history 



The life-history of this butterfly is much like that of the 

 related species. Briefly summarized, this is its story: 



The adult butterflies, more or less worn and faded from 

 their long hibernation, appear in fields and pastures in 

 May. They fly for several weeks sipping nectar from 

 many kinds of spring flowers. The females search for the 

 leaves of the elm, hop, nettle, false nettle, and perhaps 

 other related plants on which they deposit their ribbed 

 eggs either singly or in small groups, it often happening 

 that one egg will be laid directly on top of another. About 

 a week later the eggs hatch into small spinose caterpillars 

 which begin feeding upon the leaves near by. They con- 



