COLIAS II., III. 
flowers are will surely be seen Philodice. On marigolds and brilliant single zin¬ 
nias they delight to pasture, for they have a keen sense of color. I have known 
one of them to alight on an amethyst in a lady’s ring, after hovering about its 
wearer so persistently as to attract attention, and it rested some seconds. 
Doubtless there were puzzled perceptions on sounding that stony flower. 
It is the habit of Philodice to gather in dense masses by scores and hundreds, 
upon wet spots in the road, swarming when disturbed and settling again when 
the interruption ceases. In the Can. Ent. II., p. 8, 1869, the Rev. C. J. Beth- 
une writes : “ On the third of August, a bright sunny morning, after an exces¬ 
sively wet night, I drove about ten miles along country roads ; every few yards 
there was a patch of mud, and at each there were from half a dozen to twenty 
Philodice , at least one, 1 should think, for every yard of distance traveled. I must 
then have seen, at a very moderate computation, ten thousand specimens of this 
butterfly.” In Westwood’s Arcana Entomologica, I., p. 144, the late Edward 
Doubleday says: “ I have seen in Illinois, in the autumn, Colias Philodice and 
Ccesonia, Terias Nicippe and Lisa , and Callidryas Eubule , in groups literally of 
hundreds (the first-named insect generally making nineteen twentieths of the 
company), in a space not six feet square.” 
As might be expected of so prevailing a species, Philodice is subject to great 
variation, and many of its varieties are extreme. It would be easy to indicate 
several of these which seem only to await favorable circumstances, as segregation 
for a period, to cause them to become permanent; that is, to become distinct 
species. They vary in size, in color, in the extent and contour of the marginal 
border, in the discal spots, in all the markings of the under side, and in the 
degree of dusting of both sides; in size, from an expanse of 1.3 to 2.6 inches; in 
color, from pale sulphur to lemon and bright yellow; in the breadth of the bor¬ 
ders, from .1 to .3 inch; in its extent on costal margin; in the contour of its 
inner edge, from regular to erose and crenated, sometimes also crossed nearly to 
the margin by yellow nervules, sometimes only at the apex, and often not at all; 
in the size and shape of the discal spot of primaries, from a mere streak to a large 
rounded spot or an irregular patch, and with occasionally a long spur projecting 
from it, perhaps connecting it with the marginal border; in the discal spot of 
secondaries from nil, or a shade scarcely differing from the ground color, to 
orange, and either single or double; in the color of the under surface, from pale 
to bright yellow, or to ochraceous; in the discal spot of primaries, from yellow- 
centered to pink, or silver-white, or even wholly black; in the extra-discal spots, 
from a complete series across both wings to almost none at all, only a few dark 
scales here and there being present, (I have never seen an example in which 
there was absolutely no trace of these spots,) and in color, from pink through 
