Volume I Part 22 (1/2)
Under the head of _Colias Pyranthe_, M. G.o.dart has united the three insects described by Fabricius, as, _Pap. Pyranthe_, _Nepthe_ and _Gnomia_, all bearing in their leading colours a very near resemblance to each other. Yet as this consideration alone appears to have decided this ingenious author in uniting them, without apparently noticing the nicer but more important characters of form, proportion, and real s.e.xual distinction, as well as geography, I cannot but consider the question still remains doubtful; and although I am not at present prepared to offer an opinion as to the actual affinity between these three insects, I have little or no doubt that the one now figured is a really distinct species from either of the above, which all inhabit various parts of India. This, on the contrary, is from the interior of the Cape of Good Hope, from whence it was brought by Mr.
Burchall, among whose insects I have seen about twenty unvarying specimens, but they were all males. I discovered however three or four of both s.e.xes, varying in size, in Mr. Haworth's cabinet, and the perfect similarity in colour of the female with the other s.e.x is very striking: it wants of course the little tuft of hair and opaque spot within the borders of the wings, so generally found in the male _Coliadae_.
The distinctions of _Colias Pyrene_ as a species rest on the areola of the anterior wings being considerably larger in proportion than in the others allied to it, thus making the black dot (which is always placed at the outer extremity of the areola) much nearer the tip than the base: these wings are also more sharply trigonal (in the male), and have only the slightest appearance of a black margin; the hinder wings are also perfectly entire, and not obtusely undulated as in those insects, and the s.e.xes not differing in colour. Like most of the insects of this genus, the ocellate spots beneath vary considerably; sometimes they are silvery, at other times not; the a.n.a.l valves in the male are short and obtuse, and the wings in the female not so sharply pointed.
Pl. 52
[Ill.u.s.tration]
COLIAS argante.
_Orange Colias._
GENERIC CHARACTER.--See Pl. 5.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
_C. (Mas.) alis aurantiis, supra immaculatis, posticis subtus atomis ferrugineis, plerumque puncto gemino argenteo._
_C. (Foem.) alis aurantio-flavis, anticis supra, apice punctoque medio atris; posticis subtus, puncto gemino argenteo atomisque ferrugineis._
C. (Male.) Wings bright-orange, above immaculate; posterior beneath with minute ferruginous dots, and generally two silvery spots.
C. (Female.) Wings golden-yellow; anterior above with a central spot and black marginal tip; posterior beneath covered with ferruginous dots and two silvery spots.
(_Male._) Papilio Hersilia. Cramer, _pl._ 173. C. D.
---- argante. _Fab. Ent. Syst._ iii. _pt._ 1. _p._ 189.
Colias argante. _G.o.dart in Encycl. Method._ 9. 92. _no._ 11.
(_Female._) Papilio Cipris. _Cramer_, _pl._ 99. E. F.
Colias Cnidia. _G.o.dart_, 93. _no._ 14.
No two insects can present a more striking dissimilarity than the s.e.xes of this species; and it was only after a considerable degree of attention to the subject, in their native climate, that we were at last thoroughly convinced that _Colias argante_ and _C. Cnidia_ were, without the least remaining doubt, the male and the female of one species. I have had the same opinion communicated to me by my friend Dr. Langsdorff, whose long residence and observations in Brazil render his opinion of no small authority.
As both insects are well known, and their distinctions given in the specific character, it will be only necessary to observe, that the under surfaces of the wings in both s.e.xes vary much both in the density of the minute dots, and short undulated stripes that spread over their surface; and that the silvery spots in some males are strongly marked, and in others quite obsolete: there is, in very fine individuals of this s.e.x, a faint bloom of pink spread on the orange of the upper surface, which heightens the vivid yet chaste beauty of the insect. The females are not so common. I met with them both in northern and southern Brazil, and have seen them in collections from Para directly under the equinoctial line.