A Butterfly of the High Sierra Nevada. 



99 



A BUTTERFLY OF THE HIGH SIERRA NEVADA— 

 BEHR'S ALPINE SULPHUR. 



By Fordyce Grinnell, Jr. 



The subject of this sketch, which is known to naturalists un- 

 der the name of C olios (Eurymus) hehrii, and which might be 

 called by the common name Behr's Alpine Sulphur, is of interest 

 to Californians from at least three points of view, viz : it was 

 first collected by members of the historic State Geological Sur- 

 vey under J. D. Whitney, some time before 1866; secondly, it 

 was named in honor of one of the greatest of the pioneer natu- 

 ralists of California, Hans Hermann Behr, who came to Cali- 

 fornia in 1851, where he resided until his death in 1904; thirdly, 

 it is one of the few butterflies in North America which is re- 

 stricted to an altitude of 10,000 feet and above ; and is a recent 

 survival from the ice-cap. 



This butterfly was described by W. H. Edwards in 1866 in 

 the Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia, 

 "from two males and one female, received from Dr. Behr, and 

 taken among the Yo Semite Mountains at an elevation of about 

 10,000 feet above the sea." It was again described and beau- 

 tifully figured by Mary Peart in Edwards' "Butterflies of North 

 America," Vol. L Henry Edwards, in reviewing the group of 

 butterflies to which Behr's Sulphur belongs, says of it : "This 

 very characteristic and distinct species, which has been rightly 

 named in honor of Dr. Behr, the pioneer of California ento- 

 mology, is found only about the rim of the great Yosemite 

 basin, and usually at an altitude of from 8,000 to 12,000 feet. 

 In these unfrequented spots it flies sparingly, and is, of course, 

 difficult to capture, from the rugged nature of its haunts. It 

 seems chiefly to settle on the flowers of a species of Eriogonum. 

 Nothing is known of its early stages, and at present it is re- 

 markably rare in collections." 



The male of Behr's Alpine Sulphur has a wing expanse of 

 about one and a half inches. The upper side of the fore wings 

 is of a dark greenish-yellow, sprinkled with black scales; a 



