PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 84 Washington : 1937 No. 3013 



A NEW SUBSPECIES OF THE NYMPHALID BUTTERFLY 

 POLYGONTA FAUNUS 



By Austin H. Clark 

 Curator, Du-ision 0/ Echinoderms, United Statcn National Museum 



William H. Edwards, in April 1862, described the butterfly Grapta 

 fauiius, which he said "is found abundantly in certain localities on 

 the Catskill Mountains, New York. It is also found at Fort Simpson, 

 at Albany River, and Lake Winnipeg." The type locality of f annus 

 is therefore the Catskill Mountains. In his description of Argynnis 

 atlantis Mr. Edwards mentioned that in 1861 he had found that 

 species abundant near the Mountain House, and it was presumably 

 at the same time and place that he secured his type series of faunrns. 



Polygonia faunus is one of the commonest and most characteristic 

 butterflies of the Canadian Zone, from the highlands of New York 

 and New England westward. In addition to many records of this 

 insect from these northern regions, there are a few records from 

 the southern extension of the Canadian Zone along the mountains 

 from West Virginia to Georgia. 



Among the watercolor drawings of the insects of Georgia by John 

 Abbot in the British Museum dated 1792-1804, there is a figure 

 identified by Samuel H. Scudder as Polygonia f minus that bears the 

 manuscript note in Abbot's handwriting "met with by Mr. Elliot 

 in his tour to the mountains." 



Some time after publishing the original description, Edwards 

 recorded a single individual of faunus that had been captured in 



1 18807— S7 219 



