2 BULLETIN 15 7, U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



For comparison with District specimens considerable collections 

 were made in Essex and Middlesex Counties, Mass. While the 

 fauna of this area is more or less transitional between the Canadian 

 fauna and the southern, material from this region is important in 

 order to enable one fully to understand Samuel H. Scudder's descrip- 

 tions of the various species. These descriptions, and his figures, were 

 mainly, though by no means always, based upon specimens from the 

 vicinity of Salem, Lynn, or Cambridge, Mass. 



MATERIAL STUDIED 



The material upon which this memoir is based consists mainly of 

 specimens selected from many thousands collected since 1924 by 

 my two sons, Austin B. J. Clark and Hugh Upham Clark, and by 

 myself at all points in the District and in the adjoining territory, 

 and of notes made during our various excursions. 



In addition to this material I have been courteously permitted 

 to study the Schonborn collection now in the United States National 

 Museum, the Schaus collection in the same institution, the general 

 collections of the museum, which contain many District specimens, 

 and various smaller private collections in Washington. 



Ernest Shoemaker, of Brooklyn, N. Y., was so very kind as to 

 send me a complete list of his District butterflies. 



The collection assembled by Henry F. Schonborn between 1880 and 

 1895 is remarkable not only for its completeness, but also for the 

 extraordinary excellence of the specimens and the unusual skill dis- 

 played in setting them. Mr. Schonborn was especially interested in 

 the younger stages of the Lepidoptera, and in many cases pupae, 

 empty pupal cases, or blown larvae were preserved with the adults. 

 It was Mr. Schonborn who first traced the life history of the orange 

 tip {Anthochmis genutia). He provided W. H. Edwards with the 

 information on this species given in his work, at the same time 

 sending to Mrs. Mary Peart at Philadelphia the specimens from 

 which she prepared the figures reproduced on Mr. Edwards's plates. 

 He also sent to Mr. Edwards three nearly mature larvae of Feniseca 

 tarquinius from alder, but gave him no further information in regard 

 to them. Mr. Edwards recorded these in 1886. 



Many of the specimens in Mr. Schonborn's collection, besides being 

 absolutely perfect, are unusually large. Evidently these were raised 

 under exceptionally favorable conditions, although this is not indi- 

 cated. 



No measurements of the specimens in this collection are given 

 herein for the reason that, generally speaking, a series of raised 

 specimens does not faithfully portray a species as it occurs in nature. 

 Raised specimens for the most part must be interpreted as showing 

 what a species might be were the natural conditions slightly altered. 



