2. One can certainly give an explicit dessin for all the modular curves, since they all have a map to $X(1) \cong \mathbb P^1$ ramified over only $3$ points (the elliptic points and the cusp), the precondition for a dessin. One can compute it by looking at the group action of $\Gamma/\Gamma(n)$.\Gamma/\Gamma(N)$. 3. The existence of a map which factors through the map to$\mathbb P^1$is an obvious sufficient condition. It is fairly painless to check but seems very unlikely to be strong enough. I would expect that the problem is extremely hard in general. 1 1. It shouldn't be too hard to find some necessary conditions and some sufficient conditions, e.g., complex conjugation acts on dessins by reflection, so a dessin defined over Q should certainly have a mirror symmetry. 2. One can certainly give an explicit dessin for all the modular curves, since they all have a map to$X(1) \cong \mathbb P^1$ramified over only$3$points (the elliptic points and the cusp), the precondition for a dessin. One can compute it by looking at the group action of$\Gamma/\Gamma(n)$. 3. The existence of a map which factors through the map to$\mathbb P^1\$ is an obvious sufficient condition. It is fairly painless to check but seems very unlikely to be strong enough. I would expect that the problem is extremely hard in general.