150 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



apparently the species is harder to separate from lais in this sex than in 

 the male. 



6. A. e/ecira, Edw. — The separation of local material into two species 

 as atlantis and electra is quite out of the question. Atlantis is strictly 

 eastern, and as distinguished from the rest of the group is larger, has 

 heavier black markings, including a wider outer border, and a narrower 

 buff band beneath. Of electra from Colorado, its described district, I 

 have only one pair, but cannot see any difference whatsoever from the 

 species so widely distributed throughout the Rockies and Selkirks of 

 British North America, including the prairie-bounding hills in the west- 

 central portion of Alberta. The darker forms found jn that region, 

 though a bit smaller, approximate the eastern species so very closely as to 

 make separation more than difficult. The lighter end of the series is the 

 lais common on the Albertan prairies, whence this form was described. 

 My series at present consists of sixty males and about thirty females, and 

 I have from time to time closely examined a very much greater number. 

 These include two males from Windermere, four from Kaslo, one from 

 Osoyoos, four males and five females from the Rockies, along the line of 

 the C. P. R., and the rest from various localities from the foothills to the 

 plains, though I have none from east of Calgary, having seldom collected 

 there during its season. My efforts to procure more mountain material 

 have been unsuccessful. The typical prairie form is much less heavily 

 black-marked, has lighter and more restricted brownish basal area, and 

 less rusty-red on secondaries beneath, with a rather wider buff border. I 

 have tried for years, but have utterly failed to draw any distinct line 

 between the two forms, and waver between two opinions. Those are, 

 that either lais is a prairie form oi electra, merging gradually into it as it 

 reaches the mountains, or that they are really two species, of which the 

 extreme varieties overlap, and of which lais does not quite reach the 

 mountains, though electra just reaches to the edge of the plains. Lais, 

 however, is entered in the B. C. list, on the authority of Dr. Holland, 

 who states that it is found in " Alberta and Assiniboia, and in British 

 Columbia among the foothills and the lower slopes of the mountain 

 ranges." There is sometimes a slight tendency for the prairie form to 

 lose the silver from the marginal spots near the anal angle of secondaries, 

 and in one specimen, taken on June loth, an abnormally eaily date, the 

 marginal row have scarcely any trace of silver whatever. 



