THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 187 



in chat over my discover}', styled Igiiotus cvnigmaticns ? I trow not. 

 Yox me — a woman, and tlierefore, of course, full of vain imaginings — 

 those creatures had no beginning ; no egg, grub or pupa preceded them ; 

 no weary, slow-paced evolutionary process developed the strange little 

 beings. They sprang into full, perfect imago life in those May days, 

 having no family, no relations, belonging to no class, their secret to be 

 unlocked by no key, artificial or natural ; unfathomable mysteries, unsolv- 

 able problems, unguessable conundrums. Was it to confound the wise 

 they came ? to fulfil a prophecy I find in a certain old book, " Then 

 shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded "? 



BUTTERFLY NOTES FROM TORONTO FOR 1902. 



BY J. B. WILLIAMS, F. Z. S. 



On the 24th of May I went collecting, wiih a friend, in High Park. 

 We each took a specimen of the Tailed-Blue ( L. cotnyntas), but found, 

 as we had expected, that it was too early for Scudder's Blue. On turning 

 over an old boot that was lying on the grass, I saw a chrysalis of Z. 

 Scudderii attached to the under side ; an ant was also on the sole of the 

 boot, and ran round and round and over the chrysalis several times 

 before going away; being, apparently, quite agitated by the disturbance. 

 Is it possible that this ant was keeping some sort of guard over the 

 chrysalis, as ants are supposed to do over the larvse of Z. Scudderii? Its 

 presence on the boot may have been merely accidental, but still, its 

 movements gave one the impression that it was loth to leave the chrysalis, 

 and would have liked to carry it away, if that had been possible. 



A slight touch removed the pupa from the boot, and I kept it until 

 the 30th of May, when the butterfly emerged, and proved to be a female. 



On September 20 and 27 I collected in two places where large 

 numbers of the Clouded Sulphur ( Colias philodice) were flying about, 

 and noticed a good many of the white female form. I took five of them, 

 altogether, and saw several more that I did not capture. 



In 1 90 1, I do not remember seeing a single white specimen. Is it 

 right to speak of these females as albinos , at any rate, in the ordinary 

 sense in which that word is used? Mr. Grote suggested, in the Canadian 

 Entomologist for April, 1902, the probability of the dark female form 

 "glaucus"' of Papilio tiirnus, being a recurrence of the colour of an 

 earlier species from which it had been derived ; as female butterflies 

 generally represent the conservative element, and males tiie liberal or 

 progressive side, of insect life. 



