ON THE DIORNAL LEPIDOPTERA OF THE ATHABASKA 

 AND MACKENZIE REGION, BRITISH AMERICA. 



B3' Merkitt Cary, 



0/ tJw U. S. Bioloylcal Surrey. 



INTRODUCTION. 



During the summer of 11>()3 I was engaged in making a biological 

 exploration in portions of the Athabaska and Mackenzie valleys for 

 the United States Department of Agriculture. My time was chiefly 

 occupied with the larger forms of life, but a good opportunit}' was 

 afforded for making observations upon, and collecting a representative 

 series of, northern butterflies. Nearl}^ 150 specimens were taken, rep- 

 resenting 4.5 species and subspecies. Two butterflies in this collection 

 proved new to science. Dr. Harrison G. Dyar has recently described 

 them as CEnel>< caryi and (£ueh )iaJia)uu." 



The region traversed lies between the flft3"-flfth and sixty-third 

 parallels of latitude, and includes portions of the valleys of the Atha- 

 baska, Slave, and Mackenzie rivers, and of their lake basins, Atha- 

 baska and Great Sla\e lakes. 



Edward A. Preble, also of the Department of Agriculture, whom 

 I accompanied in 1008, made a small collection in August of that 

 year at Fort Rae, Great Slave Lake, and on the traverse between 

 that post and Great Bear Lake. Wintering at Fort Simpson, Mr. 

 Preble spent the following sunnner in the lower Mackenzie Basin, and 

 secured a representative collection of butterflies as far north as Fort 

 McPherson (latitude 67'^ 20'). A new form of Thanaos j)ropertfus, 

 from the mouth of Nahanni River, is described for the flrst time in the 

 present paper. 



These two collections, representing 53 species and varieties, form a 

 veiy good basis for a preliminary report on the butterflies of this little- 

 known region. 1 presented to the United States National Museum 

 that portion of the material which was desired for the national 

 collections. 



«Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., VI, 1904, p. 142. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol XXXI— No. 1488. 



425 



