HOW TO KNOW THE BUTTERFLIES 



Caterpillar. — About one inch long when mature. The 

 body is yellowish brown marked with greenish black. Its 

 spines are branched and mostly black. A pair of long slen- 

 der spines are on the top of the head. Feeds openly, and lifts 

 the tail and twists the head at right angles when resting. 

 Looks like a yellow leaf. 



Food-plants. — Currant, gooseberry, and elm. 



This is another frequenter of woodsy paths 

 and roads, and would be difficult to distinguish 

 from the green comma were it not for the wide 

 angled L embroidered on the lower wing. The 

 upper surface of the hind wing is shaded from 

 coffee-color at center out to a darker edge, 

 and in this the coffee-colored spots near the 

 margin are not half circles as in the green com- 

 ma, but are mere points of color. The lower 

 side of the wings is made up of many wavy lines 

 of ashen hue. These fine lines on the beautifully 

 shaded background look like woof and warp in 

 more or less diagonal pattern extending across the 

 inner dark half of the wing as well as through 

 the light band and the dark edges where they fol- 

 low the jagged margin in a weft of beautiful 

 points and scallops. There is nothing from na- 

 ture's looms that so fills one with the sense of 

 inadequacy of words for description as the under 

 surface of the gray comma's wing. The butterfly 



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