COLIAS. 223 



species of Eurymus, as Dr. Scudder suggests,* which gave rise 

 to the idea of "the butter-coloured fly." Common everywhere 

 throughout the greater part of the Palaearctic Region, in open 

 woods and lanes, almost all the year round, it could hardly 

 have failed to attract general attention. It is not, however, an 

 inhabitant of the extreme north of Europe, and in the British 

 Islands it scarcely reaches Scotland. In Ireland it is found at 

 Killarney, and has been reputed to occur in Wicklovv. It varies 

 little in size and colour, though, very rarely, individuals exhibit 

 a slight trace of orange-red on the fore-wings which is perhaps the 

 reason that some authors still persist in regarding the splendid 

 Mediterranean C. deopatra (Linn.), to which we have already 

 alluded, as a variety. It is double -brooded, and owing to the 

 strong texture and thick scaling of its wing^, it is comparatively 

 rare to meet with rubbed or broken specimens. 



Exotic genera allied to Colias. 



The first of these which we have to mention, is Amynthia, 

 Swainson, which greatly resembles Colias^ which it replaces in 

 Tropical America (including the West Indies), but is very much 

 larger, the species measuring from three to four inches across the 

 wings. The type, A. mcerula (Fabricius), is almost the counter- 

 part of Colias rhamni, except that the discoidal spot on the 

 fore-wings is black, and that on the hind-wings pale orange, 

 speckled with black. Another species, A. clorinda (Godart), is 

 greenish-white, with a sulphur-yellow blotch extending from the 

 costa over the outer half of the cell in the male ; at the end of 

 the cell is an orange spot. On the fore-wings, the second 

 branch of the sub-costal nervure is emitted before the end of 

 the cell, and on the hind-wings, the short tooth on the hind- 



* In forrr.er times, C. rhamni would have been more abundant than at 

 present ; but when there were no clover- fields, Euryinus would have been 

 much scarcer. 



