178 _ Yosemite Lepidoptera. [ZOE 
Besides these there are some fragments of a Nisoniades and a 
Pamphila, but the material is in such a poor state of preservation 
that accurate identification is impossible and the same is the case 
with some Geometrides, probably new species belonging to the 
genus Selidosema. 
Imperfect and fragmentary as the material is it presents many 
points of interest. 
First.—Among the twenty-one species of the list, there are but 
six (Meophasia Menapia, the two species of Melitaea, and the three 
species of Argynnis), not represented in the fauna of the immediate 
vicinity of San Francisco. Of course the collection of a professional 
entomologist would establish an entirely different proportion, 
nevertheless the great preponderance of species endemic to the 
Coast region, shows that there is much more affinity between it 
and the Sierra Nevada, up to 4,000 or 5,000 feet, than there is for 
instance between the insect fauna of the Andalusian Coast and that 
of the Sierra Nevada of Grenada; between Marseilles and the upper 
valley of the Rhone; or to keep in our own neighborhood, between 
the lowlands near the Gila and the Sierra separating the waters 
flowing into the Pacific, from those of the Gulf of California. 
This mixture of the Coast types with those peculiar to the Sierra 
is only another link in a long chain of analogies, found not 
only in the fauna but in the flora as well—as in the case of the 
Douglas spruce ( Pseudotsuga Douglasii), and the tan bark oak 
(Quercus densiflora), which skip the broad central valley of the 
State and reappear at about 4,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada. 
Habenaria, Epipactis, Spiranthes, Eriophorum, Menyanthes, etc., 
have a similar distribution, and as a striking Entomological in- 
stance, I might mention Parnassius Clodius, occurring near 
Tomales Bay, though usually subalpine inthe Sierras. A possible 
explanation of these peculiarities of distribution of many of the Cal- 
ifornian species may be found in the Arctic current that strikes 
our coast and follows it as far south as Monterey, the vapor con- 
‘stantly arising from the current accompanied by a lowered temper- 
ature facilitating the adaptation of coast organisms to {the Sierra, 
and those of the Sierra to the Coast Region, 
Second. — Among the types not represented near the coast 
is one, Neophasia, whose only known species (V. Menapia) inhabits 
the higher Sierra, but descends in Vancouver Island to the coast. 
