The insect has hitherto been taken only at considerable elevations among the Western Sierras, and the peaks and lofty meadows about the Yosemite Valley have been until recently the classic locality for the species.
There are a number of other species of the genus Colias, and numerous varieties which have been named and described from the western and northwestern portions of our region; but it requires almost as much skill to distinguish them as is required to discriminate between the different species of willows, asters, and goldenrods, among plants, and we do not think it worth while to burden the student with an account of these, and of the controversies which are being waged about them. If any reader of this book becomes entangled in perplexities concerning the species of Colias, the writer will be glad to try to aid him to correct conclusions by personal conference or correspondence.
Genus TERIAS, Swainson
(The Small Sulphurs)
"Hurt no living thing: Ladybird, nor butterfly, Nor moth with dusty wing, Nor cricket chirping cheerily, Nor grasshopper so light of leap, Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat, Nor harmless worms that creep."
Christina Rossetti.
Butterfly.—Small butterflies, bright orange or yellow, margined with black. They are more delicate in structure and have thinner wings than most of the genera belonging to the subfamily of the Pierinæ. The outer margin of the wings is generally straight or slightly rounded, though in a few species the apex is somewhat acuminate. The outer margin of the hind wings is generally rounded, though in a few species it is acuminate.
[a]Fig. 148.]—Neuration of the genus Terias.
Egg.—Strongly spindle-shaped, pointed and rounded at the base and at the apex, much swollen at the middle, its sides marked by numerous broad but slightly raised vertical ridges.