122 Tryon Eeakirfc on Color ail ian Butterflies. 



COLORADIAN BUTTERFLIES. 

 BY TRYON REAK1RT. 



In the following short treatise, I have endeavored to bring together 

 all the Diurnal species of whose authenticity of habitat — around the 

 spurs, and on the slopes of the Rocky Mountains — I have been 

 assured. 



A very large proportion of these, I have in my own collection, for a 

 number of which I am indebted to our energetic collector, Mr. James 

 Hidings, who spent the spring and summer of 1864, in Colorado Ter- 

 ritory, and who has also kindly furnished me with interesting notes 

 upon the habits of many species ; some few I have been obliged to ex- 

 tract from Entomological works, or published catalogues of Museums, 

 and others belonging to the Entomological Society, and Win. H. Ed- 

 wards, Esq., I have incorporated into the list, to render the memoir as 

 far as possible, complete: several which we would naturally look for' 

 in this locality, as Erippus, Carilui, &c, I have been obliged to omit, 

 from lack of data, upon which to correctly chronicle their occurrence 

 — but without doubt, a host of old and new species, would be added 

 by a thorough exploration of the Mountains and their valleys. 



The species generally, in common with those of California (sections 

 of the same latitude) are characteristic of, and replace, many more 

 Southern types, but a few (Smintheus, Chrj/xus, etc.,) occur, whose 

 analogues are chiefly to be found in the extreme North, or elsewhere 

 in the alpine, or subalpiue regions of elevated mountains. 



The faunistic relation existing between the Butterflies of this great 

 " Backbone" of our country, and those of the West Coast is most 

 intimate; when they are not interchanged, representative forms and 

 variations, may be discovered in each, of the other : to our Eastern 

 Lepidoptera, their affinities are more distant; the Great Desert inter- 

 poses a very effectual bar to the transmission of species, and there are 

 but comparatively few, whose powers of flight have been strong enough 

 to carry them over this barrier. 



The species here enumerated, furnish the following data with refer- 

 ence to their distribution over several distinct zoological districts : 



