296 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



FURTHER NOTES ON ALBERTA LEPIDOPTERA. 



BY F. H. WOLLEY DOD, MiDNAFORE, ALTA. 



(Continued from pajc 24i.) 



423. S. afhabasca Neum. — The only locality given for this 

 species in Smith's Catalogue is "British Columbia," presumably 

 on the strength of the description, which I have not seen. But I 

 have seen the type, a male, in tlie Neumcegen collection, and it 

 is labelled "Belly River," which is in Southern Alberta, and no 

 portion of it in B.C. I have seen the species fairly swarming 

 around Gleichen, and on the Blackfcot Indian Reserve near there. 

 It is almost or quite exclusively a day flier, and revels in hot sun- 

 shine, usually accompanied, in far fewer numbers, by Melicliptera 

 septentriofialis and Melaporphyria Oregon ica. The Laggan specimens 

 I referred to as having orange secondaries are petricola Walker, 

 described from Rocky Mountain specimens taken by Lord Der- 

 by's collectors. A prairie and a mountain series of these respec- 

 tively might easily give every impression of two species, especially 

 if the series were short ones. Mountain specimens are usually a 

 trifle more robust and larger, have yellowish or orange secondaries 

 and ochreous tinted primaries, the depth of this tint varying as 

 the depth of color of the secondaries. In size, my prairie speci- 

 mens vary from about 28 to 31 mm., smaller specimens being un- 

 common. Mountain specimens see n to average scarcely more 

 than 1 mm. larger, but my largest spe:imen, a handsome female 

 from Field, B.C., expands very nearly 35 mm. My darkest and 

 most richly coloured example is from Windermere, also in B.C. 

 But an orange-tinted form is rare on the prairie, and a form with 

 creamy white ground is equall}' rare in the mountains. Each of 

 these grades through t o the predominating form in 

 their respective districts, and the extremes in each over- 

 lap those in the other. I regret to say that my entire series of 

 these at present consists only of twenty-five specimens, but I have 

 examined a good many m.ore, both dried and in nature, and after 

 years of deliberation have come to the conclusion that the balance 

 of evidence is strongly in favor of there being only one species. 



September. 1013 



