COLIAS II., III. 



ferruginous to black ; in the spot at outer angle of secondaries, from nothing to 

 a large brown patch ; in the basal patch, from clear pink to rusty red, and some- 

 times wholly absent ; in the discal markings, from a single round silver spot in a 

 slight ring, or without ring, to a double spot, or two separated spots, nearly 

 equal, on a large ferruginous patch, which itself may be round or irregular ; the 

 silver scales often rej^laced by roseate ; in the dusting of upper side, from a slight 

 obscurity at base to so dense a covering as to give a gray shade to whole sur- 

 face ; of the under side, from a clear surface to one as thickly coated as in Pe- 

 lidne. The females vary in the same degree, and any peculiarity in one sex 

 may lie matched in the other. Occasionally a female is seen in which there is 

 an absence of the usual sub-marginal 3'ellow spots, the borders then being black, 

 and so far assimilated to those of the male. (Fig. 4, PL 3.) Sometimes also the 

 males are orange-tinted, and two examples are known to me in collections. One 

 of these is in the possession of Mr. Charles Wilt, of Philadelphia. The other 

 was given me some years since by tlie late Benjamin D. Walsh, and was taken 

 by him in Illinois, in coitu with a yellow female, which also I have. The orange 

 hue of this male is decided, and especially upon the inner half of primaries. 

 (Fig. 1, PL 3.) The yellow species may sometimes acquire characteristics of the 

 orange, without actual hybridism, according to the fact stated by Darwin (Orig. 

 Spec, 5th ed. Am. p. 138), that ''the varieties of one species when they range 

 into the habitations of other species often acquire in a slight degree some of their 

 characters." Or the present may be an example of hybridism, for that the 

 orange species do sometimes mate with the yellow is not to be doubted. I have 

 a pair taken in coitu by Mr. Dodge, in Nebraska, the male of which is an Enry- 

 iheme of the most pronounced type, the female the ordinary yellow PhUodipe. 

 Mr. Dodge says : " Unfortunately I killed the male before separating them, and 

 the female died without depositing eggs." It is stated by Mcischler (Wien. Ent. 

 Monat., IV., p. 22), that the European Coliades do occasionally hybridize, as 

 Erate with Edusa and with Myrmidone. 



The melanic variety figured was taken by Mr. Charles Worthington, of Chi- 

 cago, " in an upland grass-field, near the village of Palmyra, N. Y. There were 

 two, but only one was captured, and a third was seen about a mile away." 

 Another example was taken by Mr. C. W. Pearson, of Montreal, in August, 

 1875, at Chateauguay Basin, the upper surface of which he describes as " deep 

 brownish black, somewhat green-tinted if seen obliquely. On the under side the 

 primaries are dark brown and secondaries almost olive-green." 



The examples of Philodice taken in the district in which I live are of a larger 

 average size than those from States farther north, but still many are diminutive. 

 The small variety figured 3, PL 3, and which seems to be identical with Hub- 



