VAPILIONIDiE. — COLIAS. 9 



Above, the male is sulphur-yellow and the female greenish- white, with a ilusky 

 spot at the base of the wings, and an orange or fulvous spot in the centre, 

 and obsolete ferruginous dots on the margin, especially on the anterior costa : 

 beneath, the male is greenish, the female paler, and the discoidal spot on all 

 the wings is whitish in the centre, with a ferruginous margin : the abdomen 

 is black above and yellow beneath ; its base and the thorax thickly clothed 

 with long glossy white silken hairs: the legs are white: the antenna; are 

 reddish ; at the base of the latter is an elevated reddish tuft of scales. 



t Var. 0. With the wings clouded, and minutely dotted and streaked with orange 

 or fulvous. — Curtis, iv. pi. 173. This variety is in the rich lepidopterous 

 collection of Mr. Haworth. 



The caterpillar is green, with a paler line on each side of the belly, and very 

 small scale-like black dots on the back, which give that part a bluish aspect : 

 the fore part of the body is thick and rounded, the hind part compressed. 

 It feeds upon the Rhamnus catharticus {or huckthorn), and the Ith.fra»!>iilus 

 (or berry-bearing alder) ; and is said to occupy three or four days in changing 

 to the pupa state : the pupa, or chrysalis, is very gibbous in the middle, acu- 

 minated before, and green with a clearer Une on each side, and a reddish or 

 fulvous spot in the middle: it is vertically suspended on a perpendicular 

 branch, with a loose silken thread round its middle: — the perfect insect is 

 produced in about fifteen days. 



This gay and lively-coloured insect is apparently double-brooded, 

 the first brood appearing about June ; the second in the autumn, 

 and of the latter many individuals of both sexes remain throughout 

 the M'inter, and make their reappearance on the first sunny day in 

 spring. I have seen them sometimes so early as the middle of 

 February : they frequent woods, commons, meadows, and lanes, 

 and appear to be pretty generally diffused throughout the countr} ; 

 their flight is rather slow than otherwise. 



Genus III. — Colias, Fuhricius. 



Antenna; short, rather slender, filiform at the base, towards the tip gradually 

 thickening into an obconic club : palpi short, much compressed, the terminal 

 joint shortest: anterior wings somewhat trigonate, posterior rounded, with a 

 groove to receive the abdomen : legs alike in both sexes, moderate, slender : 

 claws small, weak, bifid. Caterpillar naked, tuberculated. ChrysaUs sub- 

 angulated, gibbous, slightly acuminated in front, fastened by a transverse 

 thread. 



Several papilionaceous insects are remarkable for their periodical 

 or irregular appearance, and none more conspicuously so than the 

 insects of this genus. The cause of this interesting phenomenon 

 appears inexplicable : its solution has baffled the inquiries of ento- 

 mologists, and several speculative opinions have been advanced 



Haustellata, Vol.. I. 1 July, 1827. c 



