19:2 THfi CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ON CHIONOBAS ALBERTA, ELWES. 



BY W. H. EDWARDS, COALBURGH, WEST VA. 



Mr. WoUey Dod has recently sent me from Calgary quite a number 

 of specimens of this form, and I consider it a valid species. The 

 description, however, of Alberta {$') is quite inadequate. There is 

 great variation in expanse of wing, and in colour. Some examples are 

 dark brown, some are yellow-white, like the pale N. Ridingsii ; some 

 are decidedly fulvous, like Varuna. Of 13 cj (J , all have one ocellus on 

 fore-wing, and four have two ; none have three. Five have one small 

 blind ocellus on hind wings ; the rest none at all. In a few the wings 

 are thin, but not so as to permit the ink on the labels to show through, 

 while the larger number are as opaque as in Vartma ; in the thinner 

 ones the mesial band shows above, defined on both edges ; in the others 

 it shows obscurely, and often the inner edge of the band is lost in the 

 dark hue of the base. On the under side the general form of the 

 mesial band of hind wings is circular exteriorly, and in most cases the 

 band is broad ; but in other cases it is narrow ; the exterior edge is 

 sometimes pretty even, a little erose ; in others distinctly crenated, the 

 crenations not prominent ; in other cases there is a rounded prominence 

 opposite the cell, closely like Varuna. In the larger part of the 

 examples the circular or angular outline is broken near costal margin by 

 a slight sinus. On the inner side the band has a rounded or angular 

 sinus, the deepest part of which falls on median. The largest female 

 expands 1.6 inch., and there is the same sort of variation in colour as in 

 the males. One has no ocellus on fore-wing ; one has one ; three have 

 two, and four have three ; two have no ocellus on hind wing, and all the 

 rest (7) have one each. In both sexes the fore-wing beneath presents a 

 more or less complete band running with the band of hind wings. There 

 is nothing of this in Vartma. Mr. Dod sent a large number of eggs, 

 which he obtained by confining the females over grass, though, he says, 

 they laid on everything except the grass. 



He also sent me twenty-five true Vartma, $ $ . The Alberta are 

 labelled as taken from May 12th to May 23rd; the Vartma from May 

 20th to May 29th. 



P. S. — I am able to add that Mrs. Peart reports that the eggs of 

 Alberta are ribbed like Brucei, and not at all like Uhleri, which differs 

 from all the Chionobas eggs we have seen. Probably Varuna will be 

 found to have ribs of the same type as Uhleri. 



