48 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



NOTES ON EREBIA EPIPSODEA, BUTLER.* 



Epipsodea was first known to me by examples taken by Mr. T. L. 

 Mead, in Colorado, 187 1. He says, in Report of the Wheeler Expedi- 

 tion : " This species inhabits the momitains of Colorado below timber 

 line. Specimens were brought from Fairplay by the Expedition. It 

 begins to appear about the first week ni June, is common by the middle 

 of that month, and remains until the last of July." 



Several examples were received in 1883, by Mr. William M. Courtis, 

 from Judith Mountains, Montana, at about 4,000 feet elevation, in July. 

 From Mr. Ernest Stevenson, at Walla- Walla, southeast Washington, came 

 some unusually large specimens, late in June, 1885 ; others from Spokane 

 Falls, in east Washington, by Dr, W. J. Holland. I have also received 

 this species from St. Michaels and Nushagak, Alaska ; and have received 

 eggs from Mr. Thomas E. Bean, at Laggan, Alberta. On the other hand, 

 I have not seen Epipsodea from south Colorado, or New Mexico, or 

 Arizona, or Utah, nor from the Sierra Nevada range anywhere. So far as 

 appears, it is confined to the Rocky Mountains from middle Colorado 

 northward to the Arctic sea, but flies over the lowlands in its northern- 

 most range, and may there have a wide distribution. Many examples 

 from Colorado are small, the wings expanding less than any seen from 

 Alaska ; and the largest have come from Washington. Throughout its 

 territory the two principal varieties seem to be found, the banded and not 

 banded. 



Mr. Butler described the species from two individuals "from Rocky 

 Mountains," but the locality was not stated. 



Mr. Bruce writes : " I first met with Epipsodea in Platte Canon, 

 Colorado, at about 9,000 feet elevation. It frequents damp and boggy 

 places where the grass grows rank and coarse. In such situations, up to 

 nearly 12,500 feet, I found it rather common. In one place, at the high- 

 est altitude named, a small stream of muddy water from a mine had been 

 conveyed in wooden troughs which emptied into a basin-like depression ; 

 in this place, being always moist, the grass and flowers grew 

 luxuriantly, and many species of butterflies were in profusion. Epipsodea 

 was plenty, and in almost all the examples I captured here, the ocelli on 



*From Edwards's Butt. N. A., Vol. 3, Part IX., issued Feb. i, 1890. As com- 

 paratively few of our readers are likely to ste this work, we ha\e thought it worth while 

 to reprint these interesting notes. — En. C. E. 



