432 [November 



Oamer figured the male from a specimen brought from Virginia. Say 

 also figured the male, and mentions that he had taken the species in 

 Georgia, Florida, Arkansas and Missouri. The description of Boisdu- 

 val and LeConte is taken from Cramer's figure, they never having seen 

 the species. No mention is made of the female by either of these au- 

 thors. It is surprising that Say especially should not have seen it. 

 Up to this time Diana male is the rarest of all the butterflies in our 

 collections, and, indeed, I know of no collection that has it except that 

 of Mr. Walsh, who has a single specimen, taken some years since, in 

 Southern Illinois. 



The male is conspicuous from the contrast between the blackish base 

 of its wings and the clear yellow margin, and may be distinguished from 

 Ot/hele^ with which it associates, at a great distance. I first saw a sin- 

 gle male hovering about the flowers of the '' iron-weed, "( Vernonia ? ) 



on the 20th of August last, near the banks of the Great Kanawha 

 River, in West Virginia. Two days afterwards, in same vicinity, I 

 came suddenly upon a large black and blue butterfly, feeding so quietly 

 as to allow me to stand near it some seconds and watch its motions. It 

 seemed to be a species of Limenitis, so much did it resemble L. ursula 

 in color and markings. But in taking it I saw it was an Argynnis 

 female, and the pattern of the under side left no doubt of its afiinity to 

 Diana male. 



Now that my attention was attracted to this species, I found it not 

 very uncommon, always when seen, upon or near the " iron-weed," 

 which is very abundant upon the rich bottoms of that region dur- 

 ing the month of August, and form the feeding ground of innu- 

 merable Papilios, Argynnides and Vanessas. The female is quite as 

 conspicuous as the male, from its great size and brilliant metallic color. 



In the course of a few days I had taken several of both sexes. In 

 an excursion up Elk River, I found them comparatively plenty, and 

 on one sunny afternoon in particular, as I rode along, I must have seen 

 fifty, most of which were females. That afternoon I took seventeen, 

 and altogether, between the 20th and 3l)th of the mouth, I took four- 

 teen males and thirty females, finding the color constant in each sex. 

 The males were all more or less ragged and broken, while the females 

 were often still fresh. The males should be looked for from the 1st to 

 the 10th of August, and the females from the 10th to the 20th. for. 



