Genus Dismorphia 



This subfamily is very large, and is enormously developed in 

 the tropics of both hemispheres. Some of the genera are very 

 widely distributed in temperate regions, especially the genera Pieris 

 and Colias. 



Genus DISMORPHIA, Hiibner 



" I saw him run after a gilded butterfly; and when he caught it, he let it go 

 again; and after it again; and over and over he comes, and up again; catched it 

 again." Shakespeare, Coriolanus. 



Butterfly. — The butterflies are medium sized, varying much in 

 the form of wing, in some species greatly resembling other Pierina 

 in outline, but more frequently resembling the Ithomiid and 

 Heliconiid butterflies, which they mimic. Some of them rep- 

 resent transitional forms between the 

 type commonly represented in the genus 

 Pieris and the forms found in the two 

 above-mentioned protected groups. The 

 eyes are not prominent. The palpi are 

 quite small. The basal joint is long, 

 the middle joint oval, and the third joint 

 small, oval, or slightly club-shaped. The 

 antennas are long, thin, terminating in a 

 gradually enlarged spindle-shaped club; 

 the fore wings being sometimes oval, 

 more frequently elongated, twice, or even 

 three times, as long as broad, especially in the male sex; the apex 

 pointed, falcate, or rounded. The cell is long and narrow. The 

 first subcostal vein varies as to location, rising either before or after 

 the end of the cell, and, in numerous cases, coalescing with the 

 costal vein, as is shown in the cut. 



Early Stages. — Of the early stages of these interesting insects 

 we have no satisfactory knowledge. 



The species of the genus belong exclusively to the tropical 

 regions of the New World. There are about a hundred species 

 which have already been named and described, and undoubtedly 

 there are many more which remain to be discovered. These in- 

 sects can always be distinguished from the protected genera 

 which they mimic by the possession of six well-developed am- 

 bulatory feet in both sexes, the protected genera being possessed 

 of only four feet adapted to walking. 



273 



Fig. 138. — Neuration of the 

 genus Dismorphia. 



