NOTES ON THE MELITAEID BUTTERFLY EUPHYDRYAS 

 PHAETON (DRURY), WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF A NEW 

 SUBSPECIES AND A NEW VARIETY 



By Austin H. Clark 



Curator of Division of Echinoderms, United States National Museum 



INTRODUCTION 



One of the most interesting of the common butterflies of eastern 

 North America is Euphydryas phaeton. Its extreme locaUzation, its 

 abundance in the very restricted areas inhabited by it, its extreme 

 sluggishness under ordinary conditions, and its most unusual tenacity 

 of life combine to distinguish it from all other of our butterflies. In 

 addition, there are the curious and rather frequent variations and 

 aberrations to which, like all its close relatives, it is subject. Fur- 

 thermore, the pupae and the caterpillars in all stages show features 

 quite as interesting as those of the adults. 



Casual experience with the early stages of this butterfly in the field 

 showed that there was still much to be learned in regard to it, and 

 accordingly during the autumn of 1925 and the spring of 1926 an 

 intensive study covering all the stages was undertaken. 



The actual work was largely carried out by Messrs. Austin B. J. 

 Clark and Hugh U. Clark under my supervision. Many of the obser- 

 vations herein given were first made by them, and the present paper 

 is to be regarded as a joint contribution by all three of us. 



Most of our studies were on specimens from the vicinity of Wash- 

 ington. These we find to represent a different race from that rep- 

 resented by those with which we were previously familiar in New 

 England; for this race we propose the name 



EUPHYDRYAS PHAETON SCHAUSI, new subspecies 



Plate 1, figs. 5-8 



Characters. — Closely resembling Euphydryas phaeton phaeton (pi. 1, 

 figs. 1-4) from eastern Massachusetts, but with the ground color of 

 the upper surface of the wings deep velvety black, usually, but not 

 always, duller and more grayish in the females, instead of blackish 

 brown, and the hght markings white instead of light straw yellow; 

 on the fore wings the orange spots in the middle and at the tip of the 

 cell are usually much reduced and commonly (occasionally in the 



No. 2683,— Proceedings u. S. National Museum. Vol. 71. Art. M. 

 30563— 27t 1 1 



