Page images
PDF
EPUB

longitudinal straight line; vertex bluntly triangular, its apex white, and bounded inferiorly by a brown, minute, arcuated line; the edge white, bluntly rounded; cranium with a broad and long brown line each side, which tapers anteriorly, invaded in front by a slender band and by a broader oblique line each side posteriorly, both white; the broad lateral and the central depressed line also white; clypeus white, the rostrum dull ochreous, tipped with piceous. Pronotum white, with six brown lines, of which the two middle ones are broader and longer, and between them are two very dark brown points; beneath the posterior angle of the eye is a spot, and on the side of the pronotum, as well as on its lower margin, is a brown line; cheeks with a large brown spot and minute specks in the darker specimens. Pleura blackish, the segments margined with testaceous or yellow. Scutellum faintly embrowned (?), suffused with yellow (8), and marked with a brown spot each side of base, with a smaller spot each side of the middle, and with a submargi. nal line each side of tip. Corium translucent, pale testaceous, margined all around with white, the nervures white, and the areoles of the disk and tip margined with fuscous; four apical areoles, which are large and angular. Wings milky-white, a little nebulous exteriorly towards the tip. Legs yellowish, the femora banded and the posterior pair streaked with brown; the tibia with longitudinal series of brown dots; apical two-thirds of the tarsi piceous. Abdomen black, the fore and hind margins of the segments, and usually two or three of the posterior seg ments testaceous; connexivum margined more or less greenish-yellow. Last ventral segment of the female triangularly lobed on the middle of the hind margin, and emarginated each side of the lobe. Inferior genital covers long, suboval posteriorly, the margin situated inferiorly and with a short groove; at the upper angle is a pencil of stiff bristles; the sheath supporting the penis is shovel-shaped, beset with bristles, a little sinuated each side, where also a long stylet projects backwards. Length to tip of abdomen (3) 4mm, (9) 5mm. Width of pronotum 1.5.

The female is paler than the male, and has less fuscous on the hemelytra. In both sexes, the hemelytra are shorter than the abdomen. Collected in the Milk River region in Northern Montana.

A species of Psylla is in the collection from the vicinity of Pembina, bat it is too much altered to admit of description.

ART. XXIII.-ON THE LEPIDOPTERA COLLECTED BY DR. ELLIOTT COUES, U. S. A., IN MONTANA, DURING 1874.*

BY W. H. EDWARDS.

The butterflies were few in number, but embrace some interesting species, and at least two that are new. They were taken at various points on the forty-ninth parallel, in Montana, between 26th July and 26th August, a season of the year not favorable to collecting these insects, being too late for the early broods and too early for the autumnal.

PAPILIONIDE.

1. Pieris protodice, Boisduval. 2. Pieris occidentalis, Reakirt.

A few specimens were taken early in August at the point of crossing Milk River and beyond. P. protodice ranges over the continent from New York to California, and on the western coast is found in British Columbia. It is, however, much more abundant to the eastward, and in the Ohio Valley is extremely common in the months of August and September. So far as appears, it is single-brooded, and passes the winter in chrysalis. The larvæ feed upon cabbage, horse-radish, and allied plants.

P. occidentalis is a Western species, not known this side of the Rocky Mountains, but ranging from Colorado to the Pacific. It may be distinguished from protodice by the more rounded hind margins of primaries, and by the arrangement of the curved band of black patches on the discs of the same wings, there being a patch near the inner margin which completes the band. The under side is paler and more yellowdusted than is the other species.

3. Colias keewaydin, Edwards.

This species occupies the same territory with the larger and deepercolored orange species, C. eurytheme, Boisduval, and may perhaps yet prove by breeding from the egg to be a variety of that; but, till so proved, it is sufficiently distinct to warrant its being regarded as a true species. These orange Coliades are found from Illinois to the Pacific and as far south as Arizona. Their larvæ feed on buffalo-grass and species of clover, and that of Colias eurytheme so closely resembles the larva of C. philodice, the common species of the Eastern States, that it can scarcely be distinguished from it.

[*See note, p. 481, anteà.-ED.]

4. Colius eriphyle, Edw., (new species).

From Milk River. This species much resembles philodice in color, but is paler and of smaller average size. The marginal fuscous borders are pale-colored, and are cut to the edge of the wing by the yellow nervules, and the inner side of these borders is almost always crenated. The discal spot on the upper side of the fore wings is small, oval, and black, of hind wings is orange, single, and almost always deep orange; on the under side, the surface of the hind wings and the costal margin of fore wings is largely dusted with fine brown scales; the discal spot of the fore wings has a yellow central streak, and that of the hind wings is single (with an occasional exception), small, either white or roseate, in a ferruginous ring. Most often the surface of both wings, apart from the discal spots, is immaculate, showing no trace of submarginal brown points or spot at outer angle of hind wings.

I first received examples of this species from Mr. T. L. Mead, who took them in Colorado, in 1871, and was disposed to regard them as a variety of philodice. Subsequently I received about 50 specimens, taken by the late G. R. Crotch, in British Columbia, and later, 1874, several specimens, which were taken by Mr. Pywell on the line of the Northern Pacific Railroad west of Bismarck. This material enables me to judge with confidence of the distinctness of this species. It is not, in my opinion, a variety of philodice, nor is it occidentalis, Scudder, to which it bears some resemblance.

No other Papilionida were collected by the expedition, though no doubt several of the large Papilios-eurymedon, daunus, and rutulus-should, at the proper season, be found in that latitude. So the Coliades, scudderi and alexandra, should be common throughout that part of the mountains, and the ochraceous species astræa, of which two or three specimens only have as yet been brought to notice, collected by the Expedition of Dr. Hayden on the Yellowstone.

5. Danais archippus.

DANAIDE.

This species inhabits the entire continent below the sub-boreal regions, and has even reached the Sandwich Islands. It is large-bodied and strong of wing, and its larvæ finding a food-plant in any species of milk. weed (Asclepias) the butterfly has penetrated every district in which these plants grow.

NYMPHALIDE.

6. Argynnis edwardsi, Reakirt.

This large and beautiful species was taken on Chief Mountain, August 15. It ranges from Colorado to Mcntana, and appears to be confined to the mountains. It may be known by its large size, by the long and pointed fore wings, and by the great size of the silver spots that ornament its under side. The ground-color of this side in both sexes is of an olive-green, and forms a good distinctive character.

7. Argynnis nevadensis, Edwards.

This butterfly was taken near Three Buttes, August 8. It is allied to edwardsi in shape, and forms a subgroup with it. It is brighter-colored, smaller-sized, and beneath the ground-color is yellow or buff, mottled in the male with pale olive-green, and in the female with darker buff. The species ranges from Nevada northward, and is confined to the mountains. 8. Argynnis clio, Edw., (new species).

A female was taken at Chief Mountain, August 21. The male was known to me from a specimen formerly taken by Dr. Hayden's Montana Expedition. Both sexes expand two inches, and resemble eurynome, Edw., in size and shape. The black markings of upper side are less sharply defined, nearly all of them having a rough edging. On the under side, the spots which in most species of Argynnis are silver are here buff. with no trace of silver.

9. Argynnis rhodope, Edwards.

A single female was taken, August 8, near Three Buttes, and is the first instance which has come to my knowledge of the appearance of this species within the United States. The only examples hitherto taken have come from Cariboo, British Columbia.

The Argynnides comprise a very large proportion of the species of butterflies of the United States and British America, more than forty having been described. Of these, the larger part inhabit the Rocky Mountains and the districts beyond to the Pacific. They are mostly local in their habits, and are confined to the valleys and lower slopes of the mountains, alighting on flowers. The larvæ so far as known feed upon different species of violet, and the larger species are single-brooded, hibernating in the larval state.

10. Phyciodes marcia, Edwards.

A single specimen, collected at Milk River, July 25. This species is allied to Tharos, and may yet be found dimorphic with it. The two range over the whole of the region east of the Rocky Mountains, and have been taken also in Colorado. To the westward they are replaced by campestris, myllitta, and other allied species, though to the northwest Tharos has been taken quite at the Pacific-in British Columbia. It is also found on the Mackenzie River. These small butterflies are common on the Plains, and in cultivated districts frequent meadows.

VANESSIDE.

11. Vanessa antiopa, Linnæus.

12. Pyrameis cardui, Linnæus.

These two species inhabit the entire continent, and the Old World as well, the boreal regions excepted. I have received antiopa from the

Yukon River, and from various parts of British America. P. cardui has its range more to the southward, and abounds in Arizona and New Mexico, where antiopa is but occasional. The larvae of both species are gregarious, those of antiopa feeding on willow, of cardui principally on thistle.

13. Aglais milberti, Godart.

A few specimens of this were taken at Chief Mountain, August 22, The species ranges eastward to the Atlantic, but is nowhere common. In Colorado, Mr. Mead found it abundant, and saw large numbers of the larvæ, which are gregarious and feed on willow. Probably this species is more abundant in the Rocky Mountains than elsewhere. I have not received it from States to the south of Colorado, but in British America it is found as far north as Fort Simpson on the Mackenzie River.

No other Vanessans were taken, but doubtless j-album and huntera are also common on the forty-ninth parallel. Grapta faunus and progne may also be found, and perhaps zephyrus and satyrus.

No species of Limenitis were taken, though doubtless one or more species would have been abundant earlier in the season; arthemis, and its supposed dimorphic variety proserpina, and weidemeyeri, the latter ranging over the mountains from Arizona to Montana, and arthemis to the northward as far as Fort Simpson.

SATYRIDE.

14. Cœnonympha ochracea, Edwards. 15. Cœnonympha inornata, Edwards.

The former light ochre-yellow, the other dark brown, changing to umber. Several specimens from different localities were taken. These are small butterflies, expanding about one inch, and inhabit the Plains, their larvæ feeding on the blades of grasses. Species of this genus abound in all the valleys of the Rocky Mountains, and to the westward as far as the Pacific, but to the eastward are unknown.

16. Satyrus boöpis, Behr.

Chief Mountain, July 21. Represented by a single specimen. This species belongs rather to Oregon and British Columbia, being apparently very rarely found in the Rocky Mountains. I have not seen it from Colorado, and but once or twice in Dr. Hayden's collections from Montana. It is one of our largest species, size of alope, and is without the yellow band in fore wings seen in that species, and usually has no ocelli on the under side of the hind wings.

17. Satyrus charon, Edwards.

A few specimens were taken at Frenchman's River and Chief Mountain. This is a small, black species, first noticed by Mr. Mead in Colorado,

« EelmineJätka »