THE PIERIDS 



pand from one and three-fourths inches to two and one-half 

 inches. 



The females are dimorphic, there being a form in which 

 the ground color of the wings is white instead of yellow 

 (Plate XVII, Fig. 3). 



Caterpillar. — Length slightly more than an inch ; body 

 downy and green in color with faint stripe down the back 

 and a pale pinkish stripe along the side, which has a black 

 border below ; or the body may be pale yellowish along the 

 sides. 



Food-plants. — Clover, vetch, lupine, etc. 



With the words "yellow butterfly" there al- 

 ways comes to the mind a vision of this species, 

 it being familiar to us all who live in the eastern 

 United States. It hovers over flowers of the 

 field, especially loving the yellow blooms ; but 

 more than all this, it loves to hold banquets 

 around the mud-puddles in the road. Almost any 

 time in August when driving along a country 

 highway we may see at a distance in front of us 

 a shining yellow blotch which scatters on our 

 approach into a hundred yellow butterfly frag- 

 ments ; and if we afterward examine the spot 

 closely we can see the mud perforated with "pin- 

 holes " where these thirsty creatures have thrust 

 their long tongues. The roadside butterfly is in- 

 quisitive, always wanting to know what is going 

 on ; it is a jolly comrade, playing with its mate 



93 



