40 BULLETIN NO. 4, DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY. 
THE COMMA BUTTERFLY. 
( Vanessa comma Harr.) 
The larve of this species were quite destructive in some districts, 
notably about Cooperstown, this spring, but they disappeared early in 
July. The vines soon recovered, and appeared to suffer no permanent 
injury. 
This larva is the “thorny green worm” of some letters to local news- 
papers. It is usually of a green color, but varies from almost white to 
yellowish brown, dusted with a fine, whitish powder in some specimens. 
The head is furnished with two blackish, branched spines, while the 
spines with which the body is furnished vary in color with that of the 
other parts, but are always tipped with black. When fully grown it 
is between 14 and 2 inches in length, and then transforms into a chry- 
salis of a woody brown color, furnished with spines on the body, a nose- 
like projection in front near the head, and ornamented with golden or 
silver spots. These chrysalids are known to growers and those engaged 
in hop-yards as “hop merchants,” and according as the color of the 
metallic spots is golden or silver, so will the price of hops range high or 
low, so the story goes. The butterfly which emerges from these chrys- 
alids expands from 2 to 24 inches; upper side tawny orange, fore wings 
bordered and spotted with black; hind wings shaded with dark brown, 
with two black spots in the middle, and three more in a transverse row 
from the front edge and a row of bright orange-colored spots before the 
hind margin; outer edges of the wings powdered with reddish white ; 
under side marbled with light and dark brown, the hind wings with a 
silvery comma in the middle. 
These insects are usually kept in check by minute parasites, which 
deposit their eggs in the caterpillar, so that not one in ten ever attains 
the butterfly state. Still, they occasionally become numerous enough to 
do considerable damage, and require measures to reduce their numbers. 
The best of these is hand-picking. The only time they ever prove de- 
structive is in early summer, when the first brood approaches its full 
size, and at a time when work in the yards and about the vines, trim- 
ming, tying, &c., is continually going on, and wherever they are per- 
ceived they should be at once picked off and destroyed. They are sel- 
dom numerous, but their size and voracity make their work very ap- 
parent. As when young they feed, if not in company, yet close together, 
an entire brood can often be destroyed in a moment, and by a little 
labor directed to that end a yard can be kept clear of these insects. The 
second brood does not seem ever to be perceived, and I could not learn 
that they had ever done any appreciable damage. In fall I found the 
larvee few and far between, and thechrysalids I collected were one and 
all infested with parasites. 
