PROCEEDINGS, 1920 27

Bracteatus has bee n recorded as occurring on Vancouver I sland (2), but during four years' collecting I have not as yet come across any specimens that could be referred to this . I wish to express my acknowledgments to Dr. H. M. Parshley who has assist ed me by sending specimens of Apateticus bracteatus for com­ parison and a copy of Uhler's original description. REFERENCES (1) U hler, P. R., Trans. Maryland Ac. Sci., 1; pp. 383-394, 1897. (2) Van Duzee, E . P ., Catalogue of Hemiptera of N. A., 1917.

THE ARGYNNIS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA By E. H. Blackmore, F.E.S. The genus A rgynnis, or, as they a re commonly called, F ritillaries or Silver-spots, belong to the family or brush-footed , so called on account of the first pair of legs being aborted, and fo lded in front of them, thus being of no use for walking purposes. This genus is one of the largest in this family; it is well represented in E urope, and is found in Asia, China and Japan. Several species are found in A ustralia, and two or three species in Africa, but it is in North America that it has found its greatest development. They are found on hig h mountains up to the timber limit, and at lower elevations down to sea-level, but they are, generally speaking, a mountain-loving group. The species composing this genus are of mod~ate or large size, and are distinguished by their bright t awny or fulvous colour, with well defined black markings, which consist of waved transverse lines and rounded or t riangular markings on the outer borders. A great many species so closely approximate each other that great difficulty is experienced in separating them satisfactorily; mo ~ t of the eastern species have had their life histories carefully worked out, so that not much difficulty is now experienced in determining them, but it is our western fo rms that have caused the most trouble to students of this genus. Many different causes are responsible for this confusion; in some cases the limits of variation are not very well known; and in others, species intergrade with each other so that in a long series it is hard to tell where one species leaves off and another one begins. Mis­ identifications and confusion of specie s by some of the older authors led to a g reat deal of trouble in this respect. In some cases descriptions have not been detailed enough to allow of a definite placing of species, and have been so vaguely worded that they will allow two or three different fo rms to fit it in a more or le ss satisfactory manner. Fortunately, for present day systematists, Dt;. Wm. Barnes some years ago-1913, to be exact-sent Dr. J. McDunnough to Europe for 28 B. C. ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY the express purpose of studying the type specimens of No. Amer. L epi­ doptera which 'were contained in British, French, Belgium and German Museums. After his return from E urope he visited the principal museums of the U nited Stat es, w here type collections w ere known to exist. The total result of these examinations of type specimens has been to elucidate many perplexing problems, and to put our knowledge of the species on a far better basis than has hitherto been possible. In the genus under discussion, there stilI remains in certain g roups, much work to be done in careful breeding , and a comparison of the larval stages before a proper understanding of the species can be arrived at. Egg. T he eggs of this genus are beautiful object s under the micro­ scope, being truncate conoidal, in shape something li ke a thimble, orna- . mented on the sid e by parallel raised ridges, betw een these ridges are a number of small cross ridges, g iving it a reticulat ed appearance. According to W. G. W right, in hi s "Butterflies of the West Coast," some speci es of this genus oviposit like a grasshopper, thrusting the ovipositor down . amongst the dead leaves and rubbish under small bushes; others drop their eggs while fl ying over suitable places. T he eggs hatch in about three weeks, the young larva devouring its shell ; it then goes into lethargy w ithout eating anything else and thus it hiber­ nat es, a tiny thing, not half so big as a pin's head, naked, without any covering, in the wet and frozen rubbish, till t he leaves of its food plant shall grow in the early spring. Larva. T he larvae are cylindrical and covered w ith spines, the fi rst s(gment always bearing a pair of spines somewhat longer than the others. So fa r "as is known the North American species of this genus feed on the various species of ,w ild violet s, they are nocturnal feeders, lying concealed during the day. Chrysali s. The chrysalids are rather large ; angular ; w ith more or . less prominent projections and a bifid head. As stated before, North A merica has shown the g reatest develop­ ment in this genus, no less than 63 described fo rms and species being recognized in the B. & McD. Check List. In the 1904 B. C. Check List 14 species were li sted, 9 of w hich were misidentifi cation s, and in some cases the same species was li sted under t wo or three different names. I am rather afraid that comparison w ith Holland's Butterfl y Book was responsible for many of the errors in that li st. . In the 1906 L ist we fi nd but 10 speci es list ed; of which only fo ur w ere misidentifications, or species not occurring in the Province. Up to the present I have 8 species and 7 geographical races li sted from the P rovince, and out of these 15 forms I have 14 in my own collec­ tion, the remaining species being found in the far north of the Province. . 1. Argynnis leto Behr. This is the largest and most beautiful species that we have in the P rovince. It is especially interesting from PROCEEDINGS, UJ20 29 the fact that there are no normal coloured females, instead of being fulvous t hey are of a blackish-brown colour, w ith the sub-terminal area of a pale straw yellow, T he question whether there were ever any normal-colou red fem ales in an interesting one, T he localities I have it from are Princeton, Similkameen, Vernon, A rm strong, and R ossla nd, 2, A. aphrodite race columbia Hy, Edw, U ntil quite recently columbia has a!\\'ays been con sidered a di stinct species, but upon an examination of the type by Dr. McDunnough it is now considered a sma lI northern form of aphrodite, It resembles atlantis somewhat, and w ith w hi ch it has very often been associated. but they can always be separated in the males by the fact that in atlantis the veins on the primaries a re enla rged or thickened by black scales. It was d escri bed from Lake La I-Tache and Q uesnel in 1877, but it has a w ide di stribution throug hout the northern part of Canada. I have specim en s of this spec ies from Chi1cotin , 3. A . atlantis Ed \\'. ,\1 though th i s butterfl y occm s from the Il ope Mountains to t he R ocki es. it is 11 0t listed in our B. C. Check Lists. It was probably li sted uncler the name of e1ecta Edw., w hich is. howe\'er. a la rger and more heavily marked in sect. I have it recorded fro 111 a number of localities. in clud in g A tl in , Mt. lVlcLean, Armstrong, Osoyoos. and Rossland. 4. A. electa Ech\'. This is one of the commonest species of this genus in the Interi or. 1 have it fr0 111 a large number of localities between P rinceton and the R ocky Mountain s. There has been a con- siderable mix up in the types o f chitone, electa, and cornelia, t he latter of which is now sunk as a synony rn of electa. Edward s had several fo rm s before him \" hen he described t h is spec ies, but the ty pe is now restri cted to a m ale from :\10 . Colo,. taken by \ Iead in 187 1. In the Vernon district we have another species going under this llame \\'ith the d iscal area of the underside of the secondari es su ff u sed w ith chocolate bro \\'n. T hey could 11 0t be matched in the 'Bartl es col­ lecti on, and may be an undescribed form of either electa or chitone. 5. A. bremneri Ed\\', In our B. C, Check List s the locality of this specie s is g iven as "generall y di stributed." but this is, wrong, as I have no record of its bein g' t aken anywhere than on Vancouver I sland and the Lo\\'er F raser Vall ey, Possibly the undescribed form m en­ tioned above has been confused with it, as they bear a general resem­ blance to each othe r.. 6. A. hydaspe race rhodope Edw, T his w ith the preceding species are the only two that occur on Vancouver I sland, so that w e are rat her poorly off in this particular section of the P rovince. Rhodope, which previously held specifi c rank, is now regarded as the extremely heavily marked northern race of hydaspe which occurs in t he Yosemite Vall ey, Cal. T he race purpurascens of Sisk iyou Co" Calif., being the connect­ ing link between the two. Rhodope so far has only been found in British I

30 B. C. ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Columbia, the type locality being given as the Fraser River. There is considerable variati on in the amount of silver on the spots underneath, typically the marg inal row of triang ul ar spots are well silvered with the remainder of the spots straw yell ow, but in many cases the amount of sil ver on this outside row are greatly reduced, while occasionall y, on the other hand, nearly all the spot s are sil vered. 7. A. hydaspe race sakuntula Skin. This race was described in 1911 partly from materia l taken at A in sworth and Kaslo. It is not quite so heavil y marked on the upper side as rhodope but underneath the spots are entirely un sil vered, all being of a yell ow colour. In addition to the above localities, I have the species from Rossland. It is ev i­ dently a hig h altitude sl)ecies. 8.' A. nevadensis Edw. This species, together with meadii, edwardsi and snyderi belong to a di stinct g roup, which have the spot s elongated and very heavil y sil vered and with a g reen suffusion on under­ side of secondaries. It is rather uncommon in B. C., as Vernoll and P rinceton are the only I"ocalities I have seen it from , althoug h in some parts of East ern California it is one of the commonest species of this genus. 9. A. nevadensis race meadi E d,,'. T hi s form that we take in B. C. and through the R ocky I"Iountains to Calgary has never been satisfactorily placed. Some years ago the late vVolley D od sent a series to Dr. Skinner w ho, in returning them , said: '''l'hey are certai nly not edwardsii nor are they true nevadensis, nor are they exactly like the Colorado meadi, but they come nearest to meadi." This form occurs at Princeton, Similkameen, A rmstrong and Vernon, and if some enter­ prising student in any of those districts would take upon himself the task of rearing thi s species from the egg, and make careful notes of all the larval stages, it would go far, I am sure, towards solving this problem. P ersonall y, I think it is a distinct geographical race of meadi, w hich latter is typical in the mountains of Colorado. 10. A. platina Skin. This belongs to the halcyone-coronis group. T he late Woll ey Dod never quite satisfactorily separated this group, a lthoug h he had quite a nice seri es for compari son; he also had speci­ mens from I daho (one of the ty pe localities) and from U tah. The trouble is that some species that are found hundreds of miles from their nimotypical locality are su bject to changes of colouration of the under­ side of secondaries, and also in the black markings of the upper-side, which may be markedl y heavier or again may be somewhat reduced. T hese differences in colouration and maculation are probably due to a change of food plant and to climatic conditions. So far this species has only been recorded from O soyoos, but Wolley Dod took a pair at Bri sco, B. C., about 35 miles below W indermere, which are probably referable to this species. I did not possess a spec i- PROCEEDINGS, 1!J20 31

men of this species until recently, when a specimen was sent to me by Dr. J. McDunnough through the kindness of Dr. C. Hewitt, th e Dominion E ntomologist. 11. A. snyderi Skin. I have a single specimen, as yet unex panded, which has been identifie d by D r. McDunnoug h as this species. It \\"a s taken by the late Capt. Barvey. at Yernon, in 1904. Dr. F letcher. to whom it had been sent, returned it a s ·'undescribed." It was described in 1897 from specimens taken in Ctah. I have compared it with the description, with which it agrees. I have not seen any other s, although I have examined a great deal of Vernon material in the last few years. 12. A. mormonia race erinna E d,,'. T hi s is one of the small A rgynnids and so far has only been found in the Kootenay country. It diffe rs very little from the typical form mormonia, ,\·hich occurs in Cali­ fornia and Southern Oregon. Erinna was described from Spokane, Wash., and the name is retained to indicate the northern form. It resembles closely the f911 0wing species, but it can be di sting uished by its li g hter colour and reduced black markings on the upper- side, and by the total lack of green suffusion on the secondaries 0 11 the under-side; in this case the di sk being suffused with cinnamon brown. 13. A. bischoffi E dw. This species was described from Kodiak, A laska, in 1870. Mr. E. M. A nderson took t,,·o specimens at Atlin in 1914, which are the only records for B. C. In the R eport Canadian A rctic Expedition recently to hand, Gib son records the capture of a sing le specimen at Mayo Lake in the Y ukon, by Mr. J. K eel e in 1904. 14. A. bischoffi race opis Edw. This species was described from specimens taken at Bald Mt., Cariboo, and I have it from the Hope Mountains, Kaslo, Field, and the Taku River. It is the same that has been in our li st s under the name of eurynome var. clio for many years. Dr. Dyar sunk opis as a synony m of clio, but this is not the case, as the g reen scaling at the base of the secondaries on the under-sid e show a g reater affinity to bischoffi than to eurynome. This is the form that has the spot s entirely un sil vered. 15. A. bischoffi race washingtonia B. & McD . This race was described in April. 1913. from specim ens taken by Dr. McDunnough on Mt. Rainier, Wash. This is the southern represe ntative of the A laskan bischoffi. This is the sam e that has been in Our li st s for many years as. eurynome, which, of course. w ith its race clio wiIJ now be dropped and opis and washingtonia \\"ill take their place. Washingtonia is considerably smalJer than the average expanse of eurynome and the spots are w ell-silvered. It has practically the same range as the pre­ ceding and will no doubt we found on all of the higher peaks of the mountains of Southern British Columbia.