30 



Argynnis Freya, Thunb. I captured, in the middle of the Gomin swamp, in Sep- 

 tember, 1887, one specimen of this rare insect, I am inclined to think that it was a 

 straggler from some mountain swamp to the north of us. The onlj' other specimen that 

 I know to have been taken in Quebec Province was shewn to me, many years ago, by 

 the late Mr. Caulfield. He received it, if I am not mistaken, from Mr. Bowles, who 

 was then living in Quebec. My insect is in good condition, but is less bright than one 

 of the same species from the North-west, shown to me by Mr. H. H. Lyman. I have 

 noticed that western insects generally are of somewhat more vivid colouring than those 

 of the same species in the east. The markings on the under-side of the hind wings of 

 Freya are angulated and very intricate. The silvery embellishments are few and have 

 a bluish tinge. One of them near the inner edge of the wing takes the form of an 

 elongated X. 



Grapta gracilis, Gr. <{• Rob. In August, 1888, I saw a butterfly escaping from its 

 chrysalis case which was attached to a branch of a currant bush. I captured the insect 

 which proved to be G. gracilis. The chrysalis was four-fifths of an inch in length, one- 

 fourth of an inch in width of thorax, and the same in depth where the wing-cases term- 

 inated. It had numerous pointed projections. The color was light brown, mottled with, 

 dark brown over the abdomen. The butterfly in colouring is very distinct from Progne. 

 On the upper side it api)roaches more nearly to Faunus. Beneath, the basal portions of 

 wings are of a rich warm umber with some bluish-grey patches. Beyond in striking con- 

 trast, and extending through both primaries and secondaries is an irregular pearly grey 

 band, shaded ofi" into the dark umber of the hind margins. The arrow-heads seen so 

 plainly near the lower portion of the hind margin in the primaries of Progne, are almost 

 deleted. The silvery curve in the hind wings is very conspicuous and forms the edge of a 

 scallop in the dark portion of the wing. 



Last year, on the 12th of June, I saw Craci/is ovipositing on Red Currant. I found 

 the egg. It was cone-shaped, but slightly flattened at the top ; green — of the same shade 

 as the leaf to which it was attached, — and it had divergent longitudinal ridges of a lighter 

 hue. I cut the twig that I might have the egg under observation ; but it did not hatch, 

 it seemed to dry up with the leaf. 



Debts Portlandia, Fab. In a paper entitled " A Day in the Woods," which 

 appeared in the Society's 22nd Annual Report, I recorded my first capture on the 6th of 

 August, 1890, of this beautiful butterfly. On July 3rd, 1891, I took a very perfect 

 specimen of the species on Mount Royal. It fluttered down from a tree and lit in the 

 fern a few yards from me. On July the 22nd of the present year I took a pair in coUu, 

 at the spot on which I made my first capture.. These also fluttered down immediately 

 before me in the same heedless manner. Portlandia may be readily distinguished from 

 our other " Browns " by the delicate purple blush on the underside. In size it comes , 

 between Nephele and Canthus. 



Chionobas Jutta, Hubner. In 1885 I had not discovered the locality for Jutta. 

 Of the means by which I found it and the successful eflforts I made to rear the insect, 

 accounts appeared in the Canadian Entomologist, Vol, XX., p. 131 and Vol. XXL, p. 

 13. Mr. Scudder in his important work on the Butterflies of the Xew England States 

 and Canada mentions my success, but asks, " Does the pupa undergo its transformations 

 in a cell as in 0. semidea, or hanging like ordinary Xymphalids ?" and he adds " Fyles 

 does not tell us." He must have overlooked my second paper in which I said " The 

 chrysalids were naked, unattached, and lay on the surface of the sphagnum." Under the 

 head of Desiderata he asks, " Where in a morass mostly under water can the half-grown 

 larva find a suitable place to hibernate, and where in the still higher waters of Spring 

 can the caterpillar securely pupated" These questions are easily answered as regards 

 the Gorain Swamp. The spJiagnum rises with the water and is never submerged. The 

 visitor sinks in it, to the ankles in a dry season, and to the knees in a wet one ; and their 

 are parts of it that it is well for him to avoid. 



The individuals of this species that I brought to perfection pas.ssd the winter in the 

 larval state and turned to pupae in the Spring. Farther experiments have sliown that 

 some larvae hibernate after the second or third moult — their growth having been retarded. 



