70 



auspices of the Smithsonian, in i860, and from him I received 

 the specimens which I now have. Mr, Drexler told me that 

 they were taken at Rupert House, and were picked off the goose- 

 berry bushes in early morning, while stiffened with the cold ; also, 

 that the species was abundant there. Lieut. Dall took his ex- 

 amples at Nulato,May 20th and 24th, and others June 5th and 14th, 

 about the Ramparts. Mr. Turner and Mr. E. W. Nelson found 

 the species common at St. Michael's, on the coast above the 

 outlet of the Yukon River, and Mr. Henry Edwards has taken 

 one example at the Dalles, Columbia River. 



MacJiaon is found throughout Europe, from Lapland to the 

 Mediterranean ; also in Northern Africa and Egypt, and through- 

 out Asia to Pekin, and from India to Siberia ; also in Japan,, 

 the examples found there not differing much from those found 

 in the Netherlands, as De Haan states. Keferstein, Stett. Zeit.,. 

 vol. 30, p. 211, 1869, says that Alachaon in the Alps flies at an 

 altitude greater than 5000 feet, and in the Himalaya at 9000 

 feet. It seems adapted to every climate, and is the only Papilio 

 known to fly over the subboreal regions of both continents. 

 Nevertheless it has not been taken south of the northern boundary 

 of the United States so far as recorded, except in the single in- 

 stance above spoken of on Columbia River. Mr. Morrison, who 

 collected in that district two years ago, did not see it, nor did 

 the late Mr. Crotch, who collected at Vancouver's Island, and in 

 British Columbia as far to the north as Bald Mountains, bring 

 back any examples of Machaoti. This is in strong contrast to its 

 wide distribution in Europe, Asia and Africa. Hoping to natur- 

 alize the species here in West Virginia, I turned loose more than 

 100 butterflies last year, which came from a lot of chrysalids im- 

 ported from Germany by Mr. T. L. Mead. But a day or two 

 after they were freed they had disappeared. I hoped to see 

 some of them again this spring, flying with Tiirnus and Trolius. 

 These last species are flying abundantly as I write, but no Machaon 

 has presented itself, and I have little hope of the success of the 

 attempt to introduce them. 



In the Entomologists' Monthly Magazine for April, 1882, vol. 

 18, is an admirable description of the preparatory stages of 

 MacJiaon, by Mr. Wm. Buckler, and inasmuch as no adequate 

 description, especially of the larval stages, was ever in print be- 

 fore, I have asked the editor of " Papilio " to give this to his 

 readers. It is not likely that the present generation of lepidop- 

 terists will have the opportunity of breeding the American 

 form of the species — not till the steam whistle is heard at Hud- 

 son's Bay, or Alaska and Behring's Straits become summer water- 

 ing places. And it is highly probable that all the preparatory 

 stages of the American form will, when hereafter observed, be 

 found identical in color and markings with the Asiatic or the Eu- 

 ropean. I do not mean to say that the larva oi MacJiaon has not 



