Butterflies of the Mountain Summits. 



91 



*'It is the most difficult of all California butterflies to cap- 

 ture, as it frequents the most inaccessible places, and is more- 

 over exceedingly wary. I have spent much valuable time (for 

 on the top of a peak 10,000 feet high, time is always valuable), 

 in watching it to learn if possible the secret of its food plant, 

 but always unsuccessfully. Because it does not feed on flowers, 

 and for other reasons, I believe that the life of the individual 

 butterfly is very short, indeed, say from three to eight days, 

 according to the weather, and that its Hfe as a butterfly is 

 wholly spent in play and in the reproduction of its species." 



The genus Brenthis, related to the familiar silver-spots or 

 fritillaries (Argynnis) is another group of butterflies whose 

 few species are mostly Arctic or alpine. A few of these 

 species occur in California, but none of the strictly summit- 

 inhabiting forms has yet been found here. In the Rocky Moun- 

 tains two or three peak kinds occur, and it is wholly likely that 

 one or more of these, or some closely allied form, will be found 

 on the Sierra Nevada. These butterflies expand only about 

 one and a half inches, and have a reddish and yellowish-brown 

 ground color on the wings, variegated by many darker spots. 

 They cannot be mistaken for either of the plainer, self-colored 

 genera, Erehia and Chionobas. 



A single species of the familiar group of yellows {C olios) 

 is occasionally found on, or at least near, the summits. Its 

 scientific name is Colias hehri, thus bearing with it the memory 

 of one of CaHfornia's early and most active butterfly hunters. 

 Dr. Hermann Behr, curator of insects, for many years, in 

 the Academy of Sciences. While most Coliads are bright yel- 

 low and of some size, Behri is a tiny Httle thing of little more 

 than an inch in expanse, and of a curious dusky greenish-yel- 

 low, or dusky yellowish-green color, characteristics making it 

 seem something well removed from its warmer-climate larger 

 cousins. And in habit and habitat it is thus removed from 

 most of them. But not from all. In the Rocky Mountains I 

 used to catch a rather small dusky greenish-orange Colias 

 known as meadi, very high up on the mountain flanks. And 

 several species of Colias are strictly Arctic in distribution. All 

 of these cold weather Coliads, alpine and Arctic, have a 

 marked dusky cloudiness over the yellow and orange ground 



