Genus Meganbstoma 



Genus MEGANOSTOMA, Reakirt 

 (The Dog-face Butterflies) 



" Let me smell the wild white rose, 

 Smell the woodbine and the may, 

 Mark, upon a sunny day, 

 Sated from their blossoms rise, 

 Honey-bees and butterflies." 



Jean Ingelow. 



Butterfly. — Closely resembling those of the following genus^ 

 Colias, from which they may be readily distinguished by the 

 more acutely pointed apex of the fore wings and by the remark- 

 able coloration of these wings in the male sex, the dark outer bor- 

 ders being disposed upon the lighter ground- 

 color so as to present the appearance of a rude 

 outline of the head of a dog, whence these 

 butterflies have sometimes been called the 

 "dog-face butterflies." 



Egg. — Fusiform, strongly pointed at the 

 apex, broader at the base, the sides marked 

 with a few delicate ridges, between which are 

 numerous cross-lines. 



Caterpillar. — Elongate, cylindrical, the head 

 relatively small, striped on either side by a whit- 

 ish lateral line, each segment having a transverse 

 darker line. They feed upon leguminous plants. 

 Chrysalis. — Pointed at the head, convex on the abdominal seg- 

 ments on the dorsal side, with a decided hump on the thorax. 

 The wing-covers unite to form a moderately deep carinate, or keel- 

 shaped, projection on the ventral side, not, however, nearly as 

 large as in the genus Catopsilia. 



But two species of the genus are found within our fauna, one 

 widely distributed throughout the Southern and Southwestern 

 States, the other confined to the Pacific coast. 



(i) Meganostoma eurydice, Boisduval, Plate XXXVI, Fig. 

 1,6; Fig. 2, ? (The Californian Dog-face). 



Butterfly. — The splendid purplish iridescence of the fore wings 

 of the male is only faintly indicated in the plate. This beautiful 



288 



Fig. 146. — Neura- 

 tion of the genus 

 Meganostoma. 



