March, 1907.] GrINNELL & GrINNELL : CALIFORNIA BUTTERFLIES. 39 



species there that we failed to find lower. In the Canadian zone the 

 Murray pine woods were almost destitute of day-flying Lepidoptera, 

 but the grassy cienegas, such as those at the headwaters of the South 

 Fork of the Santa Ana, were well populated. Here, at an altitude of 

 8,000 to 9,000 feet, flying over the brilliantly green meadows dotted 

 with lilac-colored shooting-stars {Dodecatheon alpimim^ and white 

 violets ( Viola blanda) were found large numbers of the newly-named 

 Cupido hilda. This blue seemed to be characteristic of the Canadian 

 zone, and even though the mornings of the last week in June, 1905, 

 when we were camped at one of the upper cienegas, were to us un- 

 pleasantly frosty, an hour or two's sunshine brought them out in 

 swarms. We found this species also down well into Transition along 

 cool canyon beds, but only sparingly. A number of lower-zone but- 

 terflies also flew about these Canadian cienegas, such as Euvanessa 

 antiopa, Aglais milberti and Lemonias augusta. 



In Upper Transition, by far the most abundant species of butter- 

 fly, and one invading but rarely above or below, was the San Bernardino 

 checker, Lemonias augusta. This species was abundant in June 

 (especially of 1905) about the blossoming buckthorn bushes. 



In the Lower Transition, where, because of its great area, we spent 

 most of our time, a great many butterflies were met with that were not 

 seen elsewhere, and may have been exclusive inhabitants of this zone. 

 But here we are unusually liable to error, in making too general state- 

 ments as to distribution ; for the Upper Austral was not as thoroughly 

 worked, and may have yielded many of the same species. We will, 

 therefore, in the list beyond offer whatever distributional data we took 

 in more or less detail, leaving generalizations until the surrounding 

 country has been more thoroughly surveyed. 



We must emphasize the extreme value in systematic lepidopter- 

 ology of recording exact locality, just as in the study of birds or mam- 

 mals or any other group of living things. The greater portion of our 

 literature on west American butterflies is sadly neglectful of this prin- 

 ciple. Such locality-assignments as "California," "southern Cali- 

 fornia, " " interior valleys, ' ' or even ' ' the San Bernardino Mountains, ' ' 

 are almost meaningless, and should be avoided as the plague where 

 anything better can be offered — and a specimen, the exact locality of 

 which is unknown, should not be mentioned in print, at least from a 

 zoo-geographic standpoint ! Especially should a species never be 

 described without a statement of the precise type locality. For the 



