206 [Februury, 



DESCEIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF AEOYNNIS FROM 

 ARCTIC AMERICA. 



BY ARTHUR G. BUTLER, F.L.S., &c. 



The first examjiles of this species brought to this country were 

 presented to the British Museum in 1851 by Sir John Richardson, 

 captured between 67^ and 68° ; they were much worn, having evidently 

 been on the wing for some time previous to their capture. In 1855 

 a nearly perfect female example, of which I here give a description, 

 was presented by Captain Collinson, of H.M.S. "Enterprise," and 

 forms part of a collection of 100 Lepidoiytera made in Winter Cove 

 and Cambridge Bay. 



Soon after Mr. W. H. Edwards had commenced his illustrations 

 of N. American Argynnides, to which so many of his admirable j^lates 

 have been devoted, I sent him a sketch of this Argynnis, in ox-der, if 

 possible, to get a name for it. Mr. Edwards, however, wrote back to 

 me that the species was entirely new to him, and desired me to 

 describe it at once. As he has, from time to time, written to me since 

 then, but has not obtained the insect, and as he still wishes me to make 

 it known, I here append a description : — 



AeGTXNIS IMPROBA, 11. SJ). 

 Primaries above dull tawny, irrorated with brown scales, the basal area deep 

 chocolate-brown, clothed (particularly on the internal area) with olivaceous hairs ; 

 an oval spot across the centre of the discoidal cell, a g-shaped marking at the end, 

 a bifid spot beyond the cell, a slightly sinuous transverse discal series of diverse spots, 

 an externo-discal series of uniform bifid spots, a sub-marginal series of angular 

 ^-shajDcd spots, dai'k chocolate-brown, and the outer border to the sub-marginal 

 series slightly paler brown ; secondaries deep chocolate-brown ; an ill-defined greyish 

 tawny oblique series of thi-ee spots immediately beyond the cell ; an arched dull 

 tawny discal fascia, separated by the dark nervures into six elongated divisions, the 

 second to the sixth with central dark brown spots ; a sub-marginal series of dark 

 spots as in the primaries : body blackish-brown ; primaries below much clearer in 

 colour than above, the spots much less strongly defined, linear ; costal border testa- 

 ceous ; secondaries with the basal two-thirds ferruginous, dusky and irrorated with 

 grey scales at its external margin, the latter forming a well-marked angle upon the 

 radial nervure, above wliich it is trisiuuate, and bordered from the costa downwards 

 by a tapering diffused wliite spot ; external tliird flesliy-brown, densely speckled 

 with white, the outer border greyish, bounded internally by an interrupted dusky 

 line ; costal margin pure white ; a sharply-angulated transverse band (as in A. Friyga) 

 across the basal area, indicated by two irregular parallel dark brown lines, its sub- 

 costal area filled in with white, and its central angle irrorated with the same : fringe 

 testaceous ; body below coffee-brown, legs tawny : expanse of wings, 1 inch 9 lines. 



Allied to A. Frigga^polaris, Tarqninius, and lajyponica, but differing 

 most strikingly in the pattern of the under surface of secondaries. 

 British Museum : December, 1876. 



