(1) Tachyris ilaire, Godart, Plate XXXV, Fig. 4, ♂; Fig. 5, ♁ (The Florida White).
Butterfly.—The hind wings of the male on the under side, which is not shown in the plate, are very pale saffron. The under side of the wings in the female is pearly-white, marked with bright orange-yellow at the base of the primaries. A melanic form of the female sometimes occurs in which the wings are almost wholly dull blackish on both sides.
Early Stages.—We know, as yet, but little of these.
The insect is universally abundant in the tropics of America, and occurs in southern Florida.
[a]Fig. 140.]—Neuration of the genus Tachyris. Hind wing relatively enlarged.
Genus PIERIS, Schrank
(The Whites)
"And there, like a dream in a swoon, I swear I saw Pan lying,—his limbs in the dew And the shade, and his face in the dazzle and glare Of the glad sunshine; while everywhere, Over, across, and around him blew Filmy dragon-flies hither and there, And little white butterflies, two and two. In eddies of odorous air."
James Whitcomb Riley.
Butterfly.—Medium-sized butterflies, white in color, marked in many species on both the upper and under sides with dark brown. The antennæ are distinctly clubbed, moderate in length. The palpi are short, delicate, compressed, with the terminal joint quite short and pointed. The subcostal vein of the primaries has four branches, the first subcostal arising before the end of the cell, the second at its upper outer angle, and the third and fourth from a common stem emitted at the same point. The outer margin of the primaries is straight, the outer margin of the secondaries more or less evenly rounded.