182 



deed grayish scales are more or less scattered over the whole of the 

 upper surface, giving the insect a grim appearance, increased rather 

 than diminished by the slightest possible yellowish tint. 



By this description it would be exceedingly difficult to distinguish 

 this species otherwise than by immediate comparison with both sexes 

 of oleracea ; the differences are more easily to be seen than described, 

 though the extreme limits of variation of oleracea do by no means per- 

 mit us to include within its boundaries this comparatively persistent 

 form ; it is more heavily marked than the extreme of oleracea. 



In order the better to compare together some of our species of 

 Pieris, I introduce here descriptions of some new species of this genus 

 from our western coast. 



Pieris venosa (n. sp.) 



Above, white tinted with very pale greenish-yellow ; base of all 

 the wings black, and costal border of primaries with a black band, 

 extending about half its length ; extremities of upper nervules of 

 primaries broadly margined with black scales, with a spot of the same 

 color in the middle of the space between first and second inferior 

 nervules ; a black dot at the tips of the nervules of secondaries. The 

 male differs from the female in having nearly all the nervures on 

 upper side of primaries somewhat bordered with grayish scales, and 

 the extremities of the lower nervules almost equally with the upper ; 

 but most characteristically by the presence of a band of grayish 

 scales along the posterior border of primaries, which is bent abruptly 

 upwards in the direction of the spot in the space between first and 

 second inferior nervules, and continues to the third inferior nervule, 

 sometimes interrupted at the angle. 



Beneath, as in the darker forms of P. oleracea, with the ground 

 color slightly more highly colored than the upper surface, the ner- 

 vures of the secondaries being heavily, and those of the primaries 

 more narrowly bordered with grayish scales, with a saliron-colored 

 spot at base of costa of secondaries. 



Antennae black, with incomplete white annulations interrupted 

 above ; tip of club yellowish ; body black, with whitish hairs beneath ; 

 the wings expand from 1.75 to 2 inches. 



I have examined twenty specimens (5 (5,15 9), brought to the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology by ]Mi\ Alexis Agassiz, from 

 San Mateo and Mendocino city, California. 



[Doubleday in his Gen. Diurn. Lep. states that P. callhJice Godt. is found among 

 the Kocky Mountains; lioisduval, in Jiis Lep. de la Calif'ornie enumerates P. leuco- 

 rf/ce Eversniann among them, remarking that his sspeciniens " do not differ from 

 individuals from Altai;" and lastly, Meuetries, in his8t. I'etersburg Catalogue, gives 

 P. autodice Hubn as an inhabitant of California. Since no description has been 

 given in any of these cases, and the insects themselves are so closely allied, one can 

 scarcely doubt that these entomologists had before them specimens of the same 



