[Illustration FIG. 96.--Neuration of the genus _Vanessa_.]
_Butterfly._--Medium-sized insects, the wings on the upper side generally some shade of black or brown, marked with red, yellow, or orange. The head is moderately large, the eyes hairy, the palpi more or less heavily scaled, the prothoracic legs feeble and hairy. The lower discocellular vein of the fore wings, when present, unites with the third median nervule, not at its origin, but beyond on the curve. The cell of the primaries may or may not be closed. The cell of the secondaries is open. The fore wings have the outer margin more or less deeply excavated between the extremities of the upper radial and the first median, at which points the wings are rather strongly produced. The hind wings have the outer margin denticulate, strongly produced at the extremity of the third median nervule.
_Egg._--Short, ovoid, broad at the base, tapering toward the summit, which is broad and adorned with a few narrow, quite high longitudinal ridges, increasing in height toward the apex. Between these ribs are a few delicate cross-lines. They are generally laid in large clusters upon twigs of the food-plant.
_Caterpillar._--The caterpillar moults four times. In the mature form it is cylindrical, the segments adorned with long, branching spines arranged in longitudinal rows; the spines much longer, and branching rather than beset with bristles, as in the genus _Grapta_. It lives upon elms, willows, and poplars.
_Chrysalis._--The chrysalis in general appearance is not unlike the chrysalis of _Grapta_.
The genus is mainly restricted to the north temperate zone and the mountain regions of tropical lands adjacent thereto. The insects hibernate in the imago form, and are among the first butterflies to take wing in the springtime.
(1) =Vanessa j-album=, Boisduval and Leconte, Plate XIX, Fig. 9, ♀ (The Compton Tortoise).
_Butterfly._--No description is required, as the figure in the plate will enable it to be immediately recognized. On the under side of the wings it resembles in color the species of the genus _Grapta_, from which the straight edge of the inner margin of the primaries at once distinguishes it. It is a very close ally of the European _V. vau-album_. Expanse, 2.60-2.75 inches.