NYMPIIALINAE : POLYGONIA PROGNE. 369 



(Dawson), Fort McLeod, Belly River (Geddes), Cumberland House on 

 the Saskatchewan (Kirhy) and, if we are really to credit the reference, on 

 the Arctic coast, west of the luoutii of Mackenzie River (AVhite, in Richard- 

 son's Journey). Eversmann even gives it a place in his Lepidoptera of 

 eastern Siberia, stating that it is found in Viloui. So also it figures in 

 Staudinger's Catalogue from Kamschatka ; but probably an allied species 

 has been mistaken for it, perhaps P. zephyrus Edw. Saunders says it is 

 found north of our territory " to the Pacific," but I find no warrant for 

 it. In the west it has l)een taken in United States territory in Wisconsin 

 (Hoy), Iowa (Osborn, Parker, Putnam), Fort Niobrara, Neb. (Carpen- 

 ter) and the Big Horn Mountains, Wyo. (Edwards). This and Fort 

 McLeod are its westernmost known stations. Reakirt quotes Edwards 

 only in referring it to Colorado, but the species concerned was afterwards 

 described as distinct. In the east it has been found in Nova Scotia where 

 it is rather common (Jones), at several localities on the lower St. Law- 

 rence (Bell), at Godbout River on the north shore of the same (Corneau) 

 and at Anticosti (Couper). 



In New England it is more generally distributed and universally com- 

 mon than any other species of Polygonia. It is somewhat more abun- 

 dant in the southern than the northern parts, but has been taken as far as 

 Mount Desert Island (Scudder), Orono (Fernald), Hallo well "very 

 scarce" (Miss Wadsworth) and Norway, Me. "common in some sea- 

 sons" (Smith) ; Thornton and Shelburne, N. H. (Faxon) and Stow, Vt. 

 (Miss Soule). In the White Mountains it is occasionally common, but is 

 rarely seen above 2,000 feet, above which it is replaced by P. faunus. 

 Thus I found it only on the lower half of the wagon road from Fabyan'sto 

 the base of Mount Washington. Itw^ill probably be found to be compara- 

 tively rare in the elevated regions of northern New Hampshire and INIaine. 



Oviposition. The eggs are laid singly on the upper surfaces only of 

 leaves, with little selection of the exact spot, excejjting that they are fre- 

 quently at the very edge ; one sent by Mr. Angus was laid at the extreme 

 tip, as in the genus Basilarchia. The duration of this stage is four or five 

 days. 



Food plants- The food of this insect in the larval stage consists of 

 currant, wild gooseberry (Ribes rotundifoliuin Michx.) and rarely elm 

 (Ulmus americana Linn. ). It has also eaten in confinement the cultivated 

 blackberry, and will doubtless live equally well on any of the Grossulaceae, 

 wild or cultivated. Dr. Le Baron states (1st Rep. nox. ins. 111., (iO) 

 that it has done considerable mischief among the currant bushes in Kanka- 

 kee Co., 111., by stripping off their leaves, and Mr. Saunders reported in 

 1884 (Can. ent., xvi :181) that in one locality in West Ontario fear was 

 entertained for the currant crop ; but as he says elsewhere it ' ' rarely 

 appears in sufficient numbers to prove troublesome." Van Duzee suggests 



