The Nature Library

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Thoas

Plate XLII — Thoas is Fig. 4
Plate XLII — Thoas is Fig. 4

Butterfly.--This species is readily distinguished from its near ally, P. cresphontes, by the greater and more uniform breadth of the median band of yellow spots traversing both the fore and the hind wing, and by the almost total absence of the curved submarginal series of spots on the primaries. There are other points of difference, but these are so marked as to make the determination of the species easy.

Early Stages.--These have never been fully described, but we know that the caterpillar feeds upon the leaves of the lemon, the orange, and other plants of the citrus group.

P. thoas is not common within the limits of the United States, where it is generally replaced by the following species; but it occasionally occurs in the hot lands of the extreme southern portion of Texas.