154 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



slopes of Wilcox Peak. I think it prefers slate mountains, and likes steep 

 shaly slopes. It was very common on Wilcox Pass." Her record of the 

 species for that year is of particular interest, as Mr. Bean never met with 

 it at Laggan except in even digited years, and believed it to be a biennial 

 species. 



1 8. A. astarte, Doubl.-Hew. — We found this on the same dates in 

 similar situations to the last, but even more widely distributed, and the 

 males go higher up. The extreme summits of Mts. Fairview (8,875 ft.) 

 and Piran (8,610 ft.) both held the species in some numbers. I saw a 

 few on Saddle Peak (7,900 feet) just east of Fairview, as late as 5 o'clock 

 in the afternoon. A few were to be seen considerably below the peaks, 

 but the tip-top is the favourite playground of the males. Its flight is 

 unmistakeable. Two or three would often meet in playful gyrations, and 

 ascend in a ^t\N seconds to a height of fifty or a hundred feet above the 

 very highest peak, then separate as suddenly and descend in different 

 directions, to continue their rapid, dodgy flight amongst the sometimes 

 almost scorchingly hot rocks. I was using a short-handled, wide-mouthed 

 net, whilst Mrs. NichoU had a rather narrow-mouthed one, but with a 

 longer handle. This fact, added to superior dexterity in handling it, 

 enabled her to capture at least three to my one. All three of these peaks 

 are composed of a huge pile of loose sharp-edged rocks and stones, 

 varying in size from a haystack to a match-box, so the nature of the 

 ground makes quick-stepping impossible, if not foolhardy. Some of the 

 lower spurs where Alberta should be sought, and Chio?iobas Beanii is more 

 easily captured, are more or less evenly covered with fine close-lying shale, 

 on which even running is safe. The females were much more rarely met 

 vviih, and down nearer the timber line. During that summer Mrs. NichoU 

 also saw astarte on Mt. Assiniboine, south of Banff, and at Glacier Crest, 

 in the Selkirks. A pair of her British Columbian captures are in my 

 collection, a ^ labelled " 500 ft. above Lake O'Hara = about 7,000 ft., 

 July 28th," and a $ from " Pass to Yoho Valley, timber line, Aug. 23rd,'' 

 the latter in fair condition only. Mrs. NichoU wrote to me from Emerald 

 Lake on 22nd, and left for the Yoho the following day, so the B. C. 

 origin of this specimen is beyond dispute. She reports that she met with 

 the species that summer everywhere she went in the Rockies, and says 

 that females were not hard to stalk when sitting on a flower. She tells me 

 that during her trip far to the north of Laggan last year (1907) her packer, 

 Jim Simpson, caught eleven specimens on the spurs of Mt. Athabasca and 



