THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 30£ 



NOTES ON THE BUTTERFLIES OF SIOUX COUNTY, 



NEBRASKA. 



BY MERRITT CARY, NELIGH, NEB. 



While connected with expeditions sent out by the Department of 

 Entomology and Ornithology, University of Nebraska, it has been the 

 writer's good fortune to spend a portion of the summers of 1900* and 

 1901! in the extreme north-western corner of Nebraska in collecting the 

 insects, birds and mammals of the region. Naturally the butterflies, the 

 study of which has been something of a " hobby " with him for some 

 years past, came in for no little share of attention. 



That a region so interesting as Pine Ridge and the Hat Creek and 

 White River Basins are geologically, is also of the greatest interest as 

 regards its zoogeography and phytogeography, goes without saying. The 

 general topography of a region, whether it be a high plateau, deeply cleft 

 by numerous well-wooded canons, or a prairie region containing large 

 areas of bad lands and buttes, cannot fail to have its effect upon the 

 distribution of life, and to leave a strong impress upon the indigenous 

 fauna and flora. Both of these conditions obtain in north-western Sioux 

 County. 



Pine Ridge, which reaches an altitude varying from 4,000 to 5,000 

 feet above sea level, crosses the Wyoming-Nebraska line about fifteen 

 miles south of the north-western corner of Nebraska, and runs in a 

 south-easterly direction through the northern part of Sioux County. On 

 the north side the Ridge is broken up into numerous deep and well- 

 wooded canons, and slopes abruptly into the Hat Creek Basin, 1,300 feet 

 lower. 



The latter region consists of a rolling prairie, well watered by a large 

 number of small streams which have their sources in the canons on the 

 north slope of Pine Ridge, and embraces large areas of bad lands and 

 buttes. 



The yellow pine ( Pinus ponderosa) is the prevailing forest tree, and 



* In 1900 the expedition was encamped in Monroe Canon, Sioux County, during 

 the last two weeks in May, and consisted of Prof. Lawrence Bruner, J. C. Crawford, 

 Jr., and J. S. Hunter, of the University of Nebraska, besides the writer. 



t In 1901, two months, beginning with May 25th and ending with July 27th, were 

 spent in the region, with a base camp in Warbonnet Canon, by M. A. Carriker, Jr., 

 and the writer. Prof. Bruner and J. C. Crawford, Jr., spent a week or two each in the 

 region. 



