COLIAS II., III. 
Chrysalis. — Length 1 inch; cylindrical, thickest in middle, tapering to 
either extremity; head-case pointed, the eyes prominent; thoracic process 
.''light, 1 ounded • color yellow-green; a yellow lateral line from wing-case to last 
segment; and below this a row of red points, one on each segment. (Fig. h.) 
Duration of this stage eight days. From the laying of the egg to the emer¬ 
gence of the butterfly, thirty days, in West Virginia, in July and August. In 
the Catskill Mountains, thirty-nine days. Larvae which hatched 21st September, 
at Coalburgh, hybernated when about half grown. 
Philodice is the commonest of butterflies throughout the Northern and Eastern 
States and Canada. Mr. Couper found it in the island of Anticosti. And it also 
inhabits Newfoundland. It is less abundant in Virginia, and still less southward, 
but its range is limited only by the Gulf of Mexico. In the Mississippi valley the 
oiange species predominate, but year by year Philodice encroaches on their ter- 
utoiy. Piofessoi Snow states that it is becoming well known about Lawrence, 
Kansas, though as yet by no means equaling EuTythevne in numbers. Mr. 
Dodge writes to same effect from eastern Nebraska. Mr. J. A. Allen found it in 
Iowa, though nowhere abundant. I have also examples from Dakota and Texas. 
The rapid advance ot the species is probably owing to the fact that the food- 
plant of its larva is the common red clover, which everywhere keeps step with 
the pioneer. The Coliades are not at all forest species, and it is reasonable to 
suppose that, on the first settlement of the country, the range of Philodice was 
lestiicted to the savannahs along the seaboard, or to open spots where the native 
species of trifolium or of lupinus grew; but that with the introduction of a more 
palatable oi less precarious food-plant, it has increased and dispersed till it now 
occupies half the continent. The orange species have never made their way east 
of the prairies, except as occasionally a few individuals have wandered. Tlieir 
larvae naturally feed on such plants as grow on the prairies, and over the western 
territories, but are known to betake themselves to the red clover in some degree, 
and upon this circumstances may hereafter compel them to depend as the coun¬ 
try becomes populated. All the other American species of Colias are compara¬ 
tively local in their habits. 
V here Philodice is found no one can have failed to notice it, either in garden 
or field, as it gently flits from flower to flower, or courses along the road or across 
the meadow, with sustained and wavy flight. It is sociable and inquisitive, 
and may often be seen to stop in mid-career as it overtakes or meets its fellow, 
the two fluttering about each other for a moment, then speeding on their ways ; 
or they mount in air, approaching, retreating, with a slow, vertical and tremulous 
ascent, till the eye ceases to lollow them. When the clover is in blossom the 
meadows are gay and animated .with these yellow butterflies, and wherever bright 
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