40 BULLETIN NO. 4, DIVISION OF EN'i OMOLOGY. 



THE COMMA BUTTEKFLY. 



« 



( Vanessa comma Harr.) 



The larvae of this species were quite destructive in some districts, 

 notably about Oooperstown, this spring, but tbey 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 1J 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 2£ inches ; upper side tawny orange, fore wings 

 bordered and spotted with black; hind wiugs 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 voracitj' 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 

 larvae few and far between, and the chrysalids I collected were one and 

 all infested with parasites. 



