Fam. Vanessidæ.
Grapta.
Grapta Comma Harris.
I possess but one specimen of this Grapta. It was collected by Dr. Hillebrand, in Yosemite Valley, during his late visit to California. It agrees in all essential points with two other specimens which I obtained through the kindness of Mr. W. H. Edwards, of New York. The California specimen differs by a somewhat lighter coloration on both sides, especially below where the ground color passes into a yellowish brown, while in the Eastern specimen it becomes a bluish gray. On the upper side, also, the bluish coloration of the edge of the angulated wings of the Eastern form is replaced by a yellowish tint.
I would be inclined to take G. Comma for a local variety of G. C-album, were it not for the caterpillar, which, according to Mr. Harris, resembles that of G. interrogationis, and is entirely without that strangely dimidiate coloration so characteristic in G. C-album.
In G. C-album I cannot find any difference between my Californian and European specimens. Our vernal generation is larger and somewhat lighter colored than any European specimens I have ever seen. The caterpillar has a curious dimidiate coloration, which I have never seen except in this species: the fore part being white, the abdominal part yellow. I found it on Urtica, but it will probably be found on other Urticaceous plants, herbaceous as well as arborescent. G. C-album is not common in the immediate neighborhood of San Francisco, but it is rather abundant in woody and mountainous districts.
The Atlantic States are richer in species of this genus than either Europe or California, the two latter of which possess the same number of species.
| Europe. | California. | Atlantic Slope. |
|---|---|---|
| G. C-album. | G. C-album. | G. C-album. |
| G. Triangulum. | G. Comma. | G. Comma. |
| —— | —— | G. Faunus. |
| —— | —— | G. Progne. |
| —— | —— | G. interrogationis. |