188 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



One of my elaborata I have compared with the type, a Colorado 

 female in the Henry Edwards collection. The main features in 

 which it differs from what I take to be the true nexilis is that the 

 head, thorax and primaries are strongly overlaid with yellowish, 

 giving the impression, against the black ground, almost of bronzy 

 green. In my three specimens, in addition to the yellowish or 

 whitish band on primaries, there is a small yellowish mark in the 

 cell before the orbicular. There is a trace of this in one only out 

 of my ten mountain nexilis, and I notice it exists in Hampson's 

 wood-cut of nexilis. After describing nexilis, Sir George Hampson 

 gives "Ab. 1. elaborata, fore wing without the white spot in cell 

 before the reniform." This is not in accordance with my notes on 

 the type in the New York Museum, but I may possibly have over- 

 looked this difference, which my specimens do not have. Several 

 of my mountain nexilis lack this spot. In the British Museum 

 collection an elaborata label is placed beside a Washington Forest 

 Reserve specimen, which I should have called typical nexilis. 



For a long time I was inclined to consider elaborata distinct, 

 as I found it hard to believe that a species should occur here on 

 the plains, and in the mountains, in so far as I had observed, at the 

 timber line only. All the B.C. records I can find appear to be from 

 mountains, elevation not given. So closely does elaborata resemble 

 persimilis that I suspected the existence of tibial spines in the 

 former. But I recently removed, bleached and mounted all the 

 legs of my whole series of nexilis and elaborata without succeeding 

 in finding a single spine on any tibia. I must admit that the dif- 

 ferences between these two latter, such as they are, are very slight, 

 and the observed variation suggests that with more material the 

 forms may be found to overlap. What has made the matter still 

 more interesting is that Mr. A. F. Winn and others have recently 

 discovered nexilis at St. Hilaire, which is close to sea level in Que- 

 bec. I am indebted to Mr. Winn for a specimen, and except that 

 it has rather less pink on secondaries beneath, it is practically a 

 dead mate for one of my Mt. St. Piran timber line specimens. In 

 Quebec, Mr. Winn says, that the species flies in the middle of May. 

 That is two months earlier than the mountain dates, but is prob- 

 ably easily explained by the altitude. 



