540 
Annual Report of New York 
white above, white on the underside, and on the face white with two vertical rows 
of black. Palpi straight and held projecting obliquely forward and upward, covered 
with white scales, the last joint black with its sides white. Eyes in the live insect 
greenish white with rows of movable blackish dots, the central one being coal black; 
in preserved specimens brown or brownish gray. ‘Spiral trunk equaling the antenna 
in length. Antennae black above, white beneath, and alternated with these colors 
along the sides, the knobs at their ends compressed and widening outward, with the 
tips bluntly rounded and pale tawny yellowish. The thorax is black and clothed 
with soft hairs of a leaden white color. Breast covered with white hairs. The 
abdomen is black on the back, at base with hairs similar to the thorax. On the sides 
and beneath covered with appressed white scales. The legs are pale brown, the thighs 
hlack, more or less covered with white scales and on the underside with white hairs. 
The wings are milk white above and beneath, and without spots. They arc dusted 
with black scales at their base, sometimes very slightly or not at all on the hind pair, 
but commonly more broadly, these scales extending along the outer margin frequently 
nearly a third of its length and in rare instances the entire length. The tips sometimes 
show similar black scales along the veins. On the under side the hind wings always 
have a stain of ochre yellow at the base of their outer margin. The fringes are short 
and white. 
J he under side of the hind wings are subject to some variations in 
color which it is important to notice. Instead of being white they 
are of a pale sulphur or cream color, the tips of the fore wings also 
participating in this hue. Boisduval regarded these as a distinct spe¬ 
cies, which he named Pieris cruciferarum, a name indicating them 
to be connected with the cruciferous family of plants. Another 
variety has the veins here broadly marked with dusky or blackish. It 
was from specimens with the wings thus striped that Dr. Harris drew 
up his description of the species. Still other specimens occur with 
the under side of these wings pale yellow, as in cruciferaruvi, and 
with the veins dusky as in the preceding variety; and these have been 
treated as a distinct species by Mr. Kirby, under the name Pontia 
casta , the chaste or unspotted Pontia. These varieties occur asso¬ 
ciated together, and that they are mere varieties and not distinct 
species I am assured, from having met with them paired with each 
other. 
Dr. Harris, in Agassis’ Lake Superior, says: “ Specimens of the 
females have been seen, thougji rarely, with one or two dusky spots 
on the upper side oi the fore wings.” I have never met with a speci¬ 
men showing these spots, and from the indefinite manner in which 
Dr. II. speaks it is evident he was unacquainted with examples of this 
kind. Specimens have been presented for my inspection as being 
this variety, having a faint dusky spot slightly beyond the center of 
the tore wings and a similar duskiness on their tips, and also a dusky 
6pot on the margin of the hind wings. I have recently obtained 
