Genus Dismorphia 
This subfamily is very large, and is enormously developed in 
the tropics of both hemispheres. Some of the genera are very 
widely distributed in temperate regions, especially the genera Pieris 
and Colias . 
Genus DISMORPHIA, Hiibner 
“I saw him run after a gilded butterfly; and when he caught it, he let it go 
again; and after it again; and over and over he comes, and up again; catched it 
again.” Shakespeare, Coriolanus. 
Butterfly .—The butterflies are medium sized, varying much in 
the form of wing, in some species greatly resembling other Pierince 
in outline, but more frequently resembling the Ithomiid and 
Heliconiid butterflies, which they mimic. Some of them rep¬ 
resent transitional forms between the 
type commonly represented in the genus 
Pieris and the forms found in the two 
above-mentioned protected groups. The 
eyes are not prominent. The palpi are 
quite small. The basal joint is long, 
the middle joint oval, and the third joint 
small, oval, or slightly club-shaped. The 
antennae are long, thin, terminating in a 
gradually enlarged spindle-shaped club; 
the fore wings being sometimes oval, 
more frequently elongated, twice, or even 
three times, as long as broad, especially in the male sex; the apex 
pointed, falcate, or rounded. The cell is long and narrow. The 
first subcostal vein varies as to location, rising either before or after 
the end of the cell, and, in numerous cases, coalescing with the 
costal vein, as is shown in the cut. 
Early Stages .— Of the early stages of these interesting insects 
we have no satisfactory knowledge. 
The species of the genus belong exclusively to the tropical 
regions of the New World. There are about a hundred species 
which have already been named and described, and undoubtedly 
there are many more which remain to be discovered. These in¬ 
sects can always be distinguished from the protected genera 
which they mimic by the possession of six well-developed am¬ 
bulatory feet in both sexes, the protected genera being possessed 
of only four feet adapted to walking. 
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