56 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



NOTES ON THE LIFE-HISTORY OF PHYCIODES BATESI REAK. 



(LEPID.).* 



BY J. MCDUNNOUGH, PH.D. 

 Entcmclogical Branch, Dept. of Agriculture, Ottawa. 



Phyciodes batesi Reak. is one of the specialties of the Ottawa district. Like 

 Pleheius sciidderi it extends eastward from Manitoba through northern Ontario 

 Into Quebec and thence down the White Mountains, Adirondacks and Alleghanies 

 into Virginia; although widespread it is apparently, for some unknown reason, 

 restricted to a few isolated localities; further intensive collecting may, however, 

 show that it is more common than we think and that its apparent rarity is due to 

 the fact that it has been confused with tharos. I first made its acquaintance 

 in the spring of 1918 when visiting Ottawa for the purpose of arranging the 

 National Collection of Lepidoptera; noticing local specimens of this species in 

 the collection I enquired where they had been obtained, and learned from Mr. 

 A. Gibson that the species was rather common at Queen's Park, Aylmer, a 

 -summer resort about twelve miles up the Ottawa River and situated on the 

 "Quebec side. I was fortunate enough during the last week of May to obtain 

 a good series of freshly emerged males, no females being obtained until nearly 

 a week later, during the early part of June. The species was extremely local and 

 frequented the lower dry slopes of a small ridge which at this point parallels 

 the Canadian Pacific Railroad tracks; the area in question was adjacent to a 

 AV'ood but was itself rather open and covered with a miscellaneous growth of 

 sm.all bushes and plants among which a species cf Aster with heart-shaped 

 iea\'es was quite conspicuous. The same year stray specimens were taken at 

 Chelsea, Que., on the Gatineau River, and other adjacent localities, but no- 

 where, except at Aylmer, did the species appear in any numbers. 



This past spring (1919) batesi was even more numerous than in 1918 at its 

 haunts in Aylmer, and by confining several females in a glass jar containing 

 plants of the above-mentioned Aster species I was successful in securing a large 

 batch of eggs. I further discovered a colony of freshly emerged larva? on the 

 same food plant at Aylmer. The ova laid in confinement on June 7th hatched 

 -on June ISth; the first pupa formed on July 14th and emerged on July 22nd, 

 the remaining larvae pupating during the following fortnight and emerging in 

 •due course, the last date of emergence being August ICth. Of the batch of young 

 larva; found in the open only about one-third fed up, pupated and reached the 

 adult stage; the remainder stopped feeding after the third moult and remained 

 quiescent in some secluded corner, evidently preparing for hibernation. It 

 seems evident, therefore, that under natural conditions batesi (in the Ottawa 

 region at least) is normally single-brooded with a partial second generation 

 occurring under favourable conditions. That the ova laid in confinement all 

 produced adults in the same year is probably due to the fact that shorth- after 

 being deposited they were subjected to intense heat, the jar in which they 

 Avere contained having been left for a whole morning in a very hot sun. 



As is only natural, the larva^ of batesi are very closely allied to those of 

 iharos; in one feature, however, they appear to show a distinct difference, \\z., 

 that in their early stages, up to the third moult, they live gregariously on the 



''Contributed from Entomological Branch, Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, Canada. 

 March, 1920 



