BUTTERFLIES OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 5 



lyn, N. Y. ; and Cecj'opterus cellus, of which the only District speci- 

 men is in Mr. Shoemaker's collection. 



The Museum of Comparative Zoology, at Harvard University, 

 Cambridge, Mass., contains a fairly complete representation of 

 District butterflies, and other more or less extensive series of District 

 species are in the British Museum (Natural History), London, 

 England ; the Victoria Museum, Melbourne, Australia ; the collection 

 of the Imperial Universit}^, Kyoto, Japan; and the collection of 

 Nagamichi Kuroda, Tokyo, Japan. 



IMPORTATIONS FROM THE TROPICS 



Certain tropical American butterflies have in past years been 

 noted within the city limits of Washington, mostly about the old 

 Center Market. As these are importations from the West Indies 

 and Central America, with no, likelihood of becoming established 

 here, they are mere curiosities of no scientific importance. No record 

 of them has been published and no further mention of them is made 

 herein. 



HISTORICAL 



The only previous list of the butterflies of the District of Colum- 

 bia was published in Paris in 1816 by David Baillie Warden, who 

 had been on consular duty at Washington. Unfortunately, most 

 of Mr. Warden's entomological collections had been destroyed in 

 transit to England, and he was only able to list five species, which 

 he said, however, were the most common. These, with the present 

 identifications to the right, are: 



Papilio cardui =Pyrameis cardui. 



Papilio plexippus ^=Danaus plexippus. 



Papilio polydmnos=PapUio troiltis. 



Papilio astinous ^Papilio philenor. 



Papilio TyiThea =fEpargyreus tityrus. 



In the 100 years and more that have passed since the publication 

 of Mr. Warden's list, notices of many species taken in the District 

 have appeared in widely scattered publications. The more important 

 records of District butterflies are the following : 



In 1862 W. H. Edwards described Pamphila verna=Polites vema^ 

 which was based partly on specimens from Washington. In 1863 he 

 described as a new species Hesperia wyandot^ of which one of his 

 specimens was received from Washington. Later (1877) he found 

 this to be synonymous with the European centaureae. 



In 1878 Herman Strecker described as Papilio troilus ab. a an 

 extraordinary variant " in coll. Peale." Although he did not men- 

 tion the localit}^, the specimen was from Washington. 



