Mt Cnitatltmi miitamDliJ0i$t. 



VOL. XXII. LONDON, MAY, 1890. No. 5. 



NOTES ON "A REVISION OF THE GENUS ARGYNNIS," 

 BY HENRY J. ELWES, F. L. S., F. Z. S., Etc. 



BY W. H. EDWARDS, COALBURGH, WEST VA. 



So much of the text of Mr. Ehves' paper as relates to North American 

 species has recently been printed in Psyche (March), but the synonymic 

 list, which is most important for a full comprehension of the state of mind 

 of the author, was omitted. I applied to the editor of the Can. Ent. to 

 print this list, but it was found that it would occupy nearly one half the 

 space of a number, and it was not thought expedient to give it. In 

 course of the present paper, however, enough of said list will be given to 

 show the features of the whole. Mr. Elwes, in " revising," as he terms 

 it, has cut the forty-two. species enumerated in Group I., in my Catalogue 

 of 1884, adding Cipris and Semirainis, described later, to fifteen; and 

 in Group II., makes one of Bellona and Epithore. He says, page 560, 

 (Psyche, 308) : " The Argynnides of North America are, without excep- 

 tion, the most difficult butterflies to classify that I have studied. I have 

 a collection which includes authentically named specimens of almost all 

 the species and varieties, many of them direct from such well known col- 

 lectors as Messrs. H. Edwards and Morrison, many from Messrs. Strecker 

 and Geddes. I have also seen some of the best collections in the United 

 States." * * * " IL seems presumptive for a man to set aside much 

 of what has been written by those who have seen, both living and dead, 

 so many more specimens than I have seen, etc." 



Undoubtedly it is a difficult group, and Messrs. H. Edwards and Scud- 

 der, with myself, have studied it long, but do not pretend to know com- 

 pletely some of the forms ; and it seems odd that a stranger can skip 

 from ocean to ocean and back again, stop here a day and there a week 

 to ply his net, visitinga few collections, and those mostly second or third 

 rate, getting his specimens " authentically named,'' in nearly all cases by 



