_Butterfly._--Medium-sized or small, characterized by the more or less deeply excavated inner and outer margins of the fore wings, the tail-like projection of the hind wings at the extremity of the third median nervule, the closed cell of the same wings, and the thick squamation of the palpi on the under side, while on the sides and tops of the palpi there are but few scales. They are tawny on the upper side, spotted and bordered with black; on the under side mimicking the bark of trees and dead leaves, often with a c-shaped silvery spot on the hind wings. The insects hibernate in the butterfly form in hollow trees and other hiding-places.
[Illustration FIG. 95.--Neuration of the genus _Grapta_.]
_Egg._--The eggs are taller than broad, tapering upward from the base. The summit is broad and flat. The sides are marked by a few equidistant narrow longitudinal ribs, which increase in height to the top. A few delicate cross-lines are interwoven between these ribs. They are laid in clusters or in short string-like series (see p. 5, Fig. 10).
_Caterpillar._--The head is somewhat quadrate in outline, the body cylindrical, adorned with rows of branching spines (see Plate III, Figs. 23, 27, 31-33, 38).
_Chrysalis._--The chrysalids have the head more or less bifid. There is a prominent thoracic tubercle, and a double row of dorsal tubercles on the abdomen. Viewed from the back they are more or less excavated on the sides of the thorax. In color they are generally some shade of wood-brown or greenish.
The caterpillars feed for the most part upon the _Urticaceæ_, plants of the nettle tribe, such as the stinging-nettle, the elm, and the hop-vine, though the azalea and wild currants furnish the food of some species.
The genus is confined mainly to the north temperate zone.
(1) =Grapta interrogationis=, Fabricius, Plate I, Fig. 3, ♂, _under side_; form =fabricii=, Edwards, Plate XIX, Fig. 1, ♂; form umbrosa, Lintner, Plate XIX, Fig. 2, ♀; Plate III, Fig. 23, _larva_, from a blown specimen; Fig. 27, _larva_, copied from a drawing by Abbot; Plate IV, Figs. 21, 22, 24-26, 40, _chrysalis_ (The Question-sign).
_Butterfly._--Easily distinguished by its large size, being the largest species of the genus in our fauna. The fore wings are decidedly falcate, or sickle-shaped, bright fulvous on the upper side, spotted and bordered with dark brown and edged with pale blue. On the under side they are mottled brown, shaded with pale purplish, and have a silvery mark shaped like a semicolon on the hind wings. The dimorphic variety _umbrosa_, Lintner, has the upper side of the hind wings almost entirely black, except at the base. Expanse, 2.50 inches.