136 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Mar., '16 



ground. It even ran over the face and onto the lower side of the head. 

 As I had frequently seen tiger beetles capture and devour ants, I fully 

 expected that venturing about that part of the tiger beetle would be the 

 end of the ant. But it was not; the beetle maintained its pose and the 

 ant continued reconnoitering. 



My next thought was that the beetle must be dead, so in a leisure- 

 ly careless way I stooped' to pick it up. At the approach of my fingers 

 it ran like a flash and I almost lost it. 



Having revolved in my mind several theories that might account for 

 this behavior, I offer my favorite. That is, that being perfectly quiet 

 and waiting for something to come within pouncing range is this tiger 

 beetle's way of hunting, and that having established itself on guard it 

 was not to be swayed from its poise, even by what would seem most 

 annoying attentions of the ant. W. L. McAxEE, Washington, D. C. 



Vanessa californica and Frost (Lepid.). 



Oh November ist, while pruning fruit trees in the upper Wenatchee 

 Valley, I observed a Vanessa californica flying just above the tops of 

 the young trees. The morning was quite frosty ; in fact, the crust on 

 the ground was thick enough to bear my weight ; the sun was ob- 

 scured by high-flying snow clouds, while a light but raw breeze off the 

 snow fields of the Cascades made the feel of my heavy mackinaw coat 

 very comfortable indeed. I was so surprised to meet with a butterfly 

 under such conditions that I called to my brother-in-law, Mr. J. C. 

 Hopfinger, who was working nearby, and together we watched it for 

 some time. It w'as headed into the wind, but was not making any 

 progress, and presently began to drift, but rising higher as it did so, 

 finally disappeared from our sight. 



Its movements seemed rather sluggish, not at all like the flight of 

 californica in summer and I kept expecting it to drop to the ground, 

 but it did not do so, and at the last seemed to be flying more strongly 

 than when I first observed it. 



This occurred near Leavenworth, Washington, in the higher foot- 

 hills of the Cascades. J. D. YANCEY, Port Columbia, Washington. 



Color Phases in Argynnis diana (Lep.). 



I note with interest in the January issue of the NEWS, page 35, the 

 query of Mr. W. C. Wood as to the color of his female specimen of 

 A. diana, caught near here (Blacksburg, Virginia), in which specimen 

 the basal two-thirds of the underside of the hind wings is dark, bluish- 

 black instead of "dark, red-brown," as described by Edwards. 



I first collected Argynnis diana near Asheville, North Carolina, in 

 the summer of 1880, since which time I have collected it throughout 

 its Alleghany range, particularly near Brcvard, North Carolina, and 

 Caesar's Head, South Carolina, and for the past twenty-five years, 

 here in Montgomery, Washington and Giles Counties, Virginia. 



