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The Orange-Tips (These like the butterflies)

These, like the butterflies comprising the preceding group, are white, marked with black. Their most characteristic feature is the presence on the lower surface of the hind wings of a greenish network, or a marbled green mottling (Plate XIII, Fig. 8). This usually shows through the wing so as to appear as a dark shade when the wings are seen from above (Fig. 29). Many species have a conspicuous orange spot on the apical portion of the front wings. This has suggested the common name orange-tips for the group. But it should be remembered that some species lack this mark, and that in some others it is confined to the males. Nearly all of our species are confined to the far West.

In reference to the orange-tips, Mr. Scudder states that they are eminently butterflies of early spring, and what is remarkable is that they are usually single-brooded, mature rapidly, and by the end of June at latest in temperate regions, or earlier than that farther south, are already in the chrysalis, from which they do not emerge till the following season. keeping with this their food is usually found to be those cruciferous plants of a similar habit, that is, which fruit early in the season, and then absolutely disappear from sight, dying down to the ground.

In Nine species are found in the United States; the two following are the only ones that occur in the East.