THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 23 



comes the sole form ; but whether the separation is abrupt or gradual is 

 not ascertained. As the information which I have been able to gather is 

 so meagre as regards the States west of New York. I shall confine my 

 remarks to that State and New England.") 



We have therefore in these separated districts two apparently good 

 species, answering to any definition of that name. But between, there 

 is a belt of latitude passing through New York and southern New Eng- 

 land, where in one section or other both types are found and the whole 

 series of intergrades. In this belt Alope and Nephele are found to be 

 dimorphic forms of one and the same species. I formerly was of the 

 opinion that they were distinct species, though in some districts there 

 were intergrades. I thought these approaches of one to the other did 

 not bridge the whole space between. In a paper printed in Proc. Ent. 

 Soc. Phil, 1866, I gave my reasons therefor. But some observations 

 made in July, 1S76, at Martha's Vineyard, led me to suspect a closer 

 relationship between the two species or forms. In the open country back 

 of Oak Bluffs, I found these butterflies fresh from chrysalis, and in con- 

 siderable numbers. They were all very black, diminutive, and there was 

 every grade from what I had been in the habit of calling Nephele to un- 

 questionable A /ope, with a broad clear-colored band. The band was not 

 yellow, however, as in the typical Alope, but reddish-yellow like that of 

 Pegala, which Eabricius called rufa in distinction from flava, applied to 

 Alope. Mr. Scudder took the same small reddish-banded form on Nan- 

 tucket, which island is about 30 miles from the mainland, Martha's Vine- 

 yard being about 7. I call this variety Mari/ima, but whether it is 

 restricted to the islands, or appears on the adjacent coast, I am not yet 

 advised. Mr. Mead obtained for me a large number of eggs of this 

 butterfly, while at the Bluffs shortly after my departure. They were laid 

 by the broad-banded females in confinement and mailed to Coalburgh. 

 There the lame hatched out, and these as well as the eggs were found to 

 be precisely like the same stages of Nephele from Catskills. But none of 

 the larvae survived the winter. 



* I shall be greatly obliged to any readers of this who will give me information as 

 to the occurrence of Nephele or Alope west of New York. Two plates of Part IX But- 

 terflies of North America will be devoted to the illustration of these forms and varieties, 

 and intergrades, and I desire to make the history of the species as complete as possible 

 in the text. 



