Cjje (faaiian Entomologist 



VOL. XII. LONDON, ONT., FEBRUARY, 1880. No. 2 



ON CERTAIN SPECIES OF SATYRUS. 



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



i. Nephele. — Kirby, Faun. Bor. Amer., 1837, described this species 

 as follows : "Wings brown; primaries both above and below with a paler 

 submarginal broad band including two eyelets; the upper ones surrounded 

 by a paler atmosphere, with a black iris and white pupil ; on the under 

 side the atmosphere of the eyelets is most distinct and forms a kind of 

 glory round them," etc. Nothing is said of the sex, but apparently this is 

 the description of a female. The wings of the male are blackish-brown, 

 usually of uniform shade throughout — that is, in the typical male, corre- 

 sponding to the female of Kirby. But there is a frequent departure from 

 this type in the direction of Alope, the " pale atmosphere " about the 

 ocelli appearing in the male, and in both sexes gradually widening and 

 becoming less obscure till it culminates in a clear yellow band. When 

 this is reached we have Alope, Fabr. So that Nephele intergrades com- 

 pletely with Alope. But this is not everywhere and always. The 

 metropolis of the typical Nephele is in Canada and northern New England, 

 that of Alope in the States south of New York. There is a line running 

 about with the southern boundary of New York, or it may be, in Pennsyl- 

 vania, below which Alope holds sole possession, and no tendency is 

 discoverable towards Nephele. In the extreme northern area, if there is 

 any departure from typical Nephele, it is the excej tion, not the rule. 



Mr. Scudder, in his essay on The Distribution of Insects in New 

 Hampshire, 1874, says oi Alope : "This insect is tolerably abundant, 

 sometimes very common, in the southern half of New England. The 

 most northern localities .... are Norway, Me., Thornton and 

 Shelburne, N. H., and Sudbury, Vt." Thornton is just south of the 

 White Mountains, and Shelburne is close by the mountains on the north- 

 east. Of Nephele he says : " It is foun dover the whole northern half of 

 N. E. in great abundance. The only locality in which I have met with it 

 is in Massachusetts, in the elevated region about Williamstown," &e. 



