22 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Jan., 'o"J 



Rare Butterflies. 

 BY HENRY SKINNER. 



The following question has been asked : Kindly state in the 

 NEWS what is considered the rarest butterfly in North America ? 

 That is a very difficult question to answer and may be evaded 

 by asking What is a rare butterfly ? or in other words, what is 

 meant by the term rare. We will consider the question first 

 from the standpoint of rare in collections. A butterfly may 

 be very rare in collections but very common in nature. Butter- 

 flies may be rare in collections from the following reasons : 

 They may live in localities remote from resident collectors ; 

 they may be found in places rarely visited by collectors on 

 account of distance or inaccessibility ; they may be scarce in 

 nature and restricted to a comparatively small area. As a 

 general rule they may be said to be abundant at the proper 

 place, in a given year, in the appropriate season. There are 

 certain names in our lists that represent species of more or less 

 doubtful validity and are probably synonyms, and these make 

 a class that may be called rare for obvious reasons, but need 

 not be considered here. As a subclass under this heading 

 may be considered aberrations that have been given names but 

 seldom recur in nature. 



A few species that are rare in collections may be considered. 

 Argynnis nokomis, so far as I am aware, has not been taken 

 for over twenty years. The late Berthold Neumoegen received 

 a number from somewhere in the vicinity of Kanab in southern 

 Utah, and supplied most of the collections in the early eighties. 

 Argynnis nitocris was described in 1874. About seven years 

 ago Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell found it in abundance. Prof. F. 

 H. Snow has also taken some of recent years. This butterfly 

 was scarce because it flies late in the season (after August 

 I5th), and is only found, so far as known, at an elevation of 

 about 7200 ft. Argynnis atossa is one of the rarest butterflies 

 in collections. It has never been found outside of a certain 

 place at a certain elevation in the Tehachapi Mountains in 

 southern California. Argynnis astarte was described in iS^j.x 

 and not refound until 1891. It is still rare in collections but 

 is probably found over a large extent of country at certain alti- 



