W. H. Edward's Descriptions of Diurnal Lcpidoptera. 203 



I have noticed this species for several years, and was struck from the 

 first by its deep shade of color as well as its habits and its early appear- 

 ance, but was inclined to consider it a variety of Lucia, Kirby, a spe- 

 cies wide spread, though apparently nowhere common, in the northern 

 parts of the continent. But after comparing large numbers of them with 

 undoubted L-ucias from many localities, lam satisfied it is a distinct spe- 

 cies. As the description of Lucia is not copied in full in Morris's sy- 

 nopsis, I give it here for the purpose of comparison. 



"Primaries (below) cinerascent, with four (4) indistinct eyelets iu 

 the margin; secondaries brownish ash color, spotted with black and 

 white, with five (5) eyelets in the margin. 



'■Wings above silvery-blue, terminating, especially at the posterior 

 margin, in a slender black line; fringe white barred with black; pri- 

 maries underneath ash-colored, mottled with white; on the disc is a 

 black crescent and a curved macular band, consisting mostly of oblique 

 black crescents edged with white, especially on their under side ; the 

 wing terminates posteriorly in a broadish brown band, formed chiefly 

 by obsolete eyelets; the secondaries are brown, spotted, and striped with 

 black and white; towards the posterior margin the white spots are ar- 

 ranged in a transverse band parallel with it, and as in the primaries; the 

 wing terminates in several obsolete eyelets." 



The present species is of a very different blue from Lucia, which is 

 whitish, and perhaps might be called " silvery," (though that term 

 would seem to imply a metallic shade, which Lucia has not,) and the 

 apical portion of the hind margin of primaries bears a conspicuous 

 black border. The entire surface of the under side of violacea is grey- 

 ish-white, of the other the primaries are "ash-colored mottled with 

 white," the secondaries "brown, spotted and striped with black and 

 white," each wing terminating in a "brown baud" co-extensive with 

 the eyelets. The figure given by Kirby represents a large, triangular 

 patch of brown upon secondaries in addition to the brown margins. 

 There is nothing of these features or of mottling in the Kanawha spe- 

 cimens. 



From Maine, I have three £ of Lucia, one of which displays the 

 patch exactly as in the figure of Kirby, the other two want this, but all 

 have the brown borders. One % from London, C. W. has both patch 

 and borders. A pair taken by Mr. Hidings, at Pike's Peak, show the 

 same. Of four % and one $ , taken at Fort Simpson, all have the brown 

 borders and mottled surface, the $ only the triangular patch. Three $ 



