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The Little Sulphur (Eurema euterpe Eu-re'ma)

Eurema euterpe (Eu-re'ma eu-ter'pe) PLATE XV, FIG. 7, 8, 9, 10 Although this species is larger than the dainty sulphur, it is considerably below the average size of our yellows, the larger specimens expanding less than one and one-half inches. The wings are canary-yellow above, with the apex of the fore wings and the outer margin of both fore and hind wings blackish brown. The border of the hind wings is narrow and is sometimes wanting.

There is a pale variety of the species, Eurema euterpe alba; this is represented by Figures 9 and 10 of the Plate. CATERPILLAR. -Three-fourths of an inch long; body, downy; color grass-green, with one or two white lines along each side.

Food-plants. Cassia and other legumes, preferring the species with finely divided leaves. This is a pocket edition of the roadside butterfly, except that the black spot in the middle of the front wing is reduced to a mere dot. Yet though so small and fragile and with "flight timid and feeble," it has taken possession of a large portion of the United States; it is found in the South from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and it has even gained a foothold in southern New England and northern Ohio and Wisconsin. More than this, there are on record two instances where it invaded the Bermudas, flying with the wind the six hundred miles from the mainland. The Bermudans saw one day a "cloud coming from the northwest"; but when the cloud came nearer it resolved itself into "an immense concourse of small, yellow butterflies which flitted about the open grassy patches in a lazy manner as if fatigued with their long journey over the deep."

It is to be feared that the little voyagers found them inhospitable islands, for there is no record that this species flourishes there to any great extent.

The little sulphur is a social midget and makes glad the open grass places with its numerous flittings, or gathers in bright patches in large family reunions around the festal mud-puddle; if such a gathering be observed in the South there may be found in it many of the pale wives; for this species, like the roadside butterfly, has some white females. The caterpillar hides itself cunningly on the cassia leaf by stretching itself along a midrib when it is not eating, and in this position, because of its form and color, it is practically invisible. But if roughly disturbed it swings off on a thread of silk, a performance quite unusual for a butterfly caterpillar. The species is at least three-brooded in its southern range.

Thy citron-yellow wings are bright, And soft the rosy fringe they wear, And rays of gloom and silver bright Adorn thee, blossom of the air!

The Cassia, on whose silken flower Thy fragile life its being fills, What hast thou garnered of its dower To waft thee where thy spirit wills?