1969 Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 103

FIELD NOTES AND SUB SPECIFIC STATUS OF MELISSA (SATYRIDAE) IN NORTHERN QUEBEC

GEORGE SCOTT ANTHONY Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire

During July, 1967, Fred Fauver, of Kasson College, Springvale, Maine, and I collected in the Schefferville area of northern Quebec. Due to personal help of Henry Hensel of Edmundston, New Brunswick, who col­ lected in Schefferville during July, 1964, Hensel's paper concerning his trip there, and through a paper by Dr. Eugene Munroe, who collected there as part of the Canadian Northern Survey of 1948, we had reasonable knowledge of the fauna of the area before we arrived. I was especially interested in collecting the Oeneis known from the region. Munroe reported one species, O. melissa assimilis Butler, and Hensel had found two additional species, O. taygete taygete Geyer, and O. iutta ridingiana Chennock & Chermock. We were especially advised to look for the scarce O. melissa which had been reported by both investi­ gators to frequent only the tops of the highest hills. Since Hensel took only one individual, and Munroe was able to catch very few, we were doubly eager to find the species and collect a good series. Although we carefully searched the highest points (2,200+ ft. elev.) in the immediate vicinity of Schefferville, we were unable to find O. melissa. The other two Oeneis were common, O. iutta being found in moist tundra forest at about 1,700 feet, while O. taygete was confined to moist grassy beds of dried up lakes from 2,000 to approximately 2,500 feet. Then on July 16 we investigated Irony Mountain (approx. 2,880 ft.) 25 miles northwest of Schefferville. On the summit we found O. melissa fairly numerous. Most of the individuals we saw and caught were first seen flying against a strong northwest wind in attempts to reach higher ground. When they were within 20 feet or so of the summit marker, they would generally settle on the black quartzite rocks which covered the ground. The species was wary and difficult to catch in the wind. When alarmed, an individual would invariably fly up, be caught in the wind and be blown down the southeast slope of the mountain. Although we were not able to follow a wind-blown individual, we presume that one blown down the mountain returned to the summit after a short time. This presumption is based on the fact that we once managed to frighten away every detectable individual, and within a very few minutes, they reappeared en masse. The first Oeneis that we caught attracted our attention as not fitting 104 MASTERS: Heliconius in Venezuela Vol. 23, no. 2 the descriptions of melissa assimilis. The two females we caught were in fresh condition and tended from brown to yellow brown on the dorsal sides of the wings. Males were of a uniform gray-brown dorsally. Ventrally, both sexes showed appreciable contrast between the light distal area of the hindwing and the dark postmedian band. Both sexes seemed to be unusually small for assimilis. In contrast to individuals of the Irony Moun­ tain population, typical assimilis is very dark gray or black dorsally with little or no brown in either sex, and shows less contrast between light and dark areas on the ventral hindwings. When I returned home from Schefferville, I took the series of melissa to Dr. C. F. dos Passos for help in making a detennination. We agreed that the Schefferville specimens resembled O. melissa semplei Holland more than O. m. assimilis. In addition, Schefferville is nearer the type locality of semplei (Little Cape Jones River, east coast of Hudson Bay) than that of assimilis, which has a more northern distribution. From the evidence we believe that Oeneis melissa from the Schefferville area should be referred to as O. melissa semplei.

LITERATURE CITED HENSEL, H., 1965. Two weeks of Butterfly Hunting in Central Laborador. J. Lep. Soc., 19: 242-243. MUNHOE, E. G., 1951. Field Notes on the of Knob Lake, Northern Quebec. Contr. no. 2788, Div. Ent., Science Service, Dept. of Agric., Ottawa, Canada.

HELICONIUS l1ECALE AND XANTHOCLES IN VENEZUELA ( )

JOHN H. MASTERS P.O. Box 7511, Saint Paul, Minnesota

Heliconius hecale Fabricius is an easily recognizable sp~ies that has only been known from a limited area. in Guiana. Hall (1939) noted that H. hecale was found at Parika (where it was locally common), Demerara and Mabaruma, British Guiana. While Emsley (1965) records H. hecale from El Chorro, Venezuela, I have been unable to verify its presence in Venezuela until recently. During December of 1966, Albert and Mary Lou Gadou, of Caracas, collected in the Guiana Highlands close to the British Guiana border at El Carmen (25 Km northeast of El Dorado), Bolivar, Venezuela. I recently examined their El Carmen "catch" and was happily surprised at finding a short series of H. hecale. Emsley (1965) noted that the pair of specimens from E1 Chorro were unique because the white forewing bands were shifted toward the apex and did