THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 113 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF ARGYNNIS FROM 



CANADA. 



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



Argynnis Alberta. 



Belongs to the Chariclea group. 



Male. — Expands 1.9 inch. Upper side pale yellow-fulvous ; the 

 markings as in Helena, but pale black, reduced ; the mesial stripes on 

 both wings interrupted, macular; the extra discal rounded' spots on 

 primaries minute, the sub-marginal crescents wanting, and represented by 

 small clusters of scales at the summits only, leaving a clear space to the 

 margin, which margin is edged by an even stripe ; on secondaries the 

 rounded spots are larger, and the crescents are represented by larger 

 clusters of scales ; the marginal border is extended on each nervule so as 

 to encroach on and make narrow the clear space. Under side of prim- 

 aries pale red-brown, uniform from base to margin; the black markings 

 obsolescent or altogether wanting. Secondaries brown (without the red 

 shade) ; across the disk a belt of same form as in Chariclea and Helena, 

 a shade only lighter than the ground, and all of one hue (no white as in 

 the allied species) ; the rounded spots and clusters of scales repeated 

 faintly, and behind each of the latter a pale, undefined patch. 



Female. — Same size. Brown, dusky, incHning to melanism, some- 

 times of a slaty hue rather than brown, and always with a peculiar smooth 

 surface, suggestive of grease which had been removed by benzine ; the 

 markings pale, diffuse ; the mesial stripe, on primaries, has become a 

 broad band reaching from margin to margin, and the sub-marginal clusters 

 of scales are merged in a continuous stripe ; on secondaries, all the 

 markings about base and on disk are obsolescent, the sub-marginal 

 clusters are large and diffuse, and the margin is edged by a crenated band. 

 Under side as in the male. 



From one ^ and two % sent me by Mr. Thomas E. Bean, and taken 

 at Laggan, Alberta. He writes : " This Argynnis, I think, occurs strictly 

 above timber line, and not very near it either, though also not at the 

 highest points of the mountains. In 1888, on one mountain, it was 

 decidedly frequent, but in 1889, I saw not one. The females all present 

 the same slightly shining surface, whether brown or slate in color, but it 

 is not grease. The examples I sent you were not in the least greasy, nor 



