lOO 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



broad, black border with a narrow yellow fringe on both wings, 

 and a black spot toward the upper central part of the wing, 

 with a yellow streak within. The hind wings have a yellow 

 spot corresponding in position to the black spot of the fore 

 wings; the black marginal border is less extended, but clear 

 cut. The under sides of both wings are of a much paler green- 

 ish-yellow, specked with small black scales; the discal spots 

 are more vague than on the upper side. The upper edges of 

 the wings are rose-colored as well as the antennas, which are 

 furnished with a black club. The female is a little larger than 

 the male, of a paler green, and the marginal black border is less 

 distinct and fading gradually into the ground color of the rest 

 of the wing; the fringes are more or less roseate in contrast 

 to those of the male, which are yellow. This butterfly is most 

 nearly related to the Arctic Sulphur (Colias nastes, Boisduval), 

 which is found in Labrador, Greenland, Arctic America, and 

 said to be found on the mountains of British Columbia and 

 / some varieties which are found in Lapland, Nova Zembla, and 

 the Swiss mountains. It differs from Behr's Sulphur in that 

 the marginal border is broken up into spots and the discal 

 spots indistinct and greenish-white instead of clear yellow; it 

 is larger and much paler in color. So it can be seen that our 

 butterfly of the High Sierras is a descendant of the ice-cap 

 species, which once extended continuously to the Arctic re- 

 gions, but now survives only at especially favorable locations 

 of our mountains. 



The locahties, besides those mentioned above, where this 

 butterfly has been taken are : Dr. E. C. Van Dyke of San Fran- 

 cisco found it in 1892 on the side of Mt. Lyell and in the 

 Tuolumne Meadows and on the peaks surrounding these mead- 

 ows, but did not find it common. Again, in July 1910, Dr. Van 

 Dyke collected it in Bubbs Creek Canon, Kings River, at an 

 altitude of 10,500 feet, where he found it common, and flying 

 along the meadow-like margins of the alpine streams and lakes ; 

 an alpine lupine which was quite abundant he concluded to be 

 its food plant. The late Mr. J. B. Lembert, who lived for so 

 long in the Tuolumne Meadows and of whom an account is 

 given in the January number of the Bulletin, collected this 

 butterfly in large numbers in the above-named place. He 



