176 THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE WEST COAST 



sub-marginal row of yellow spots across both wings. This 

 variety is named Hippolyta. 



I have never seen a variety of any kind, sexual or other, on the 

 West Coast. 



225. Vanessa Californica. 



Plate XXII ; Figure 225. 



Fig. 225, Male, Mountains of So. Cal., 5,500 feet altitude, 

 June, 1889; Author. 



This is strictly a high mountain butterfly in the south, but in the 

 north, about the Canada line, it flies at sea-level. In the south it 

 never, at any season, comes lower than 4,000 feet elevation. It is 

 a strong flier, and is the most pugnacious of all Coast butterflies, 

 delighting to fight any other species at sight ; and to the collector 

 he is a pest, as he likes to drive off any more desirable kind. 



In the growing days of early summer it likes to feed on the 

 viscid dampness or gum that is found on the young leaves of the 

 young balsam tree, Abies concolor, preferring that balsam to the 

 nectar of flowers. 



The larval food-plant is Ceanothus thyrsiflorus, the California 

 lilac. 



Variety, unnamed. I have noticed a variety of Vanessa Cali- 

 fornica, where the apices of fore wing in both sexes are faded or 

 paled, so that no markings are visible, but the variety is scarcely 

 worth noticing. 



226. Vanessa Milberti. 



Plate XXII ; Figures 226, a. 



Fig. 226, Male, Juneau, Alaska, July i, 1891 ; Author. 

 a, Male, Vancouver Island, June, 1891 ; Author. 

 I figure here two examples of Milberti to show the efifect of a 

 northing in the habitat, the second and the whiter one living 

 about a thousand miles to the southward of the first, darker, one ; 

 and another thousand miles' southing makes the sub-marginal 

 band nearly all white, instead of orange. 



In the south, near the Mexican line, the species is strictly a high 

 mountain one, like Californica, and is never seen at a lower ele- 

 vation than 4,000 feet, but at the Canada border it flies at sea 

 level. I have never found this butterfly at all common at any 

 place. 



