COLIAS IV. 
/ 
shortest reaching twenty-five days. These as well as their larvae were kept in a 
warm room. 
The present species traverses a vast extent of territory, embracing all of the 
United States west of the Mississippi -River, besides a considerable area to the 
east, and an undefined portion of British America as well as of Mexico. This 
region covers 40° of longitude and upwards of 30° of latitude, and presents 
every variety of surface and climate. To the southward, the summer is pro¬ 
longed and the winter short and mild; at the north the reverse of this is the 
fact, but on the plains of Texas or the prairies of Illinois, on the elevated pla¬ 
teaus of Colorado, or in the secluded valleys throughout the Rocky Mountains, 
and over the Sierras to the Pacific, the species is equally at home and is every¬ 
where abundant. It occupies with Philodice the whole of the United States 
and much of British America, and like that species, which it resembles in every 
respect but in color, it is subject to great and extreme variation, there being no 
feature whether of size or ornamentation that is not unstable. In Vol. I., I gave 
such history of Bury theme and Keewaydin as I was then able, but since those 
brief relations were printed, and indeed, within the past three years, by repeated 
breeding from the egg, together with careful and extended observations in the 
field, in many localities, it is rendered certain that we are dealing with a bi- 
formed and triformed species, and that Ariadne, Keewaydin, and Earytheme are 
but so many seasonal manifestations of it. Also, that in some districts the 
species is not seasonally polymorphic, but is simply a variable one, like Philo¬ 
dice. 
This Colias is not found in West Virginia, nor have I ever seen it alive, but I 
have been aided by several friends in the effort to learn its full history : by Mr. 
Dodge, of Glencoe, Nebraska, who has raised several lots of larvae from summer 
females, and sent me the resulting butterflies; by Mr. Bean, of Galena, Illinois, 
from whom I received larvae of the last brood of butterflies of the year, and so 
was enabled myself to follow the several changes. Mr. Bean has also given me 
full notes of all the stages of larvae raised by him at same time, and of summer 
larvae besides, and a tabulated statement showing the forms of this species taken 
by him in the field, with dates of capture. Mr. Worthington, at Chicago, has 
sent me a similar table. Mr. Mead has furnished notes from his experiences in 
Colorado and California in 18/1, and besides this, I had the opportunity of ex¬ 
amining all the specimens collected by him. And Mr. Henry Edwards has sent 
many examples and records of his captures and observations in California and 
elsewhere on that coast. He has also published a valuable paper on the Coliades 
in the Proceedings of the California Academy, Vol. VI., 1877, of which I have 
availed myself, finally, Mr. Boll, of Dallas, Texas, has sent a paper read by 
