274 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [June, 'id 



The Butterflies of the Lake Tahoe Region. 



By E. J. NEWCOMER, Palo Alto, Cal. 



Lake Tahoe is situated in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, 

 on the boundary between California and Nevada, just at the 

 point where the boundary line bends to the southeast. The 

 name, which in Indian parlance signifies "big water," very ac- 

 curately describes the lake, twenty-two miles long -and half as 

 wide, and situated at an elevation of over six thousand feet, 

 with mountains piled about it that rise to ten thousand feet and 

 more. The lake is drained by the famous Truckee River, 

 which flows from the northwestern corner. The mountains 

 sloping up from the eastern shores of the lake are now barren, 

 having been stripped of timber, it is said, in the days of the 

 Comstock Mines. Those to the west, however, are covered 

 with pines and firs except at very high elevations, and are for 

 the most part guaranteed protection by being included in the 

 Tahoe Forest Reserve. There are numbers of summer re- 

 sorts about the lake, owing their existence to the beautiful scen- 

 ery, excellent fishing, and opportunities for mountain climbing 

 of a moderate sort. 



The territory described in this article is that immediately 

 surrounding Lake Tahoe, particularly that part situated in Cal- 

 ifornia. It extends westward to the divide at the summit of 

 the Sierras, which is the western limit of the Tahoe Basin. 

 The territory is roughly about thirty miles long and from ten 

 to fifteen miles wide. It includes portions of Placer and El- 

 dorado counties. The region is all above six thousand feet 

 elevation, and it lies in the Boreal life zones. The Canadian 

 zone includes the country up to about eight thousand feet, and 

 is mostly rather heavily forested with conifers. The canyon 

 floors are ordinarily open and meadowy or rocky. In places 

 the hillsides are too steep to afford a foothold for trees, and 

 only a little underbrush grows among the rocks. As to the 

 trees the Tamarack (Finns murrayana), the Jeffrey Pine 

 ( Pinus jeffreyi), and two firs, Abies concolor and A. magnified 

 are the commonest. The Mountain Pine (P. wonticola), the 



