ARGYNNIS X. 



outer comer of the cell ; secondaries darker, more mottled, the band more re- 

 stricted ; the silver spots a little larger. (Figs. 3, 4.) 



This species was described from 1 c? 2 9 taken by Mr. Henshaw, member of 

 Lieut. Wheeler's Expedition, 1874, at Rocky Cailon, Arizona. The late Mr. 

 Morrison brought a few examples, all males I believe, from Arizona in 1882, but 

 I know not the exact locality. Up to the present year, 1887, these were the 

 only ones to be found in collections. It was reserved for Rev. George D. Hulst, 

 of Brooklyn, New York, to make us better acquainted with the species, and I have 

 to thank him for the examples figured on the Plate, and for the interesting ac- 

 count I am able to give of locality and habits. Mr. Hulst writes: "About the 

 middle of last June (1887), I started on a summer vacation to California and Ari- 

 zona, going first to California. On the way home I stopped at Prescott, Ariz., 

 and thence went twelve miles south to Maple Gulch, in the mountains, at the 

 head-waters of the Hassayampa River. I reached this place July 1st, and had 

 eleven days' collecting. It was in the rainy season, and, with one exception, it 

 rained every day, more or less, while I was there. I took specimens of Argynnis 

 Nausicaa each day of my stay, mostly males, the first females appearing only the 

 day before I left. 



'•' The country there is extremely broken and mountainous, with the little brooks 

 at the head of the river running through rocky canons, up the steep sides of 

 which the mountains rise from 1,000 to 2,000 feet. Along the beds of these brooks, 

 where the dampness is constant, are found white-stemmed violets, the same or 

 very nearly related to the eastern Viola Canadensis. Where these were found, 

 and never at any great distance from them, this butterfly was found ; so that, 

 probably, the violet is its food-plant. The species was very local, 0Vi]y found in 

 the bottoms of the canons, at 6,000 to 7,000 feet altitude, and within an area of 

 not more than one by three miles. And with a single exception all that I saw 

 Avere on the north side of the divide. That one was on the south, but the condi- 

 tions were the same, though I did not see the violets. The butterflies were very 

 quick on the wing, and rarely alighted. The few taken on flowers were on 

 Asclepias tuberosa. Some were taken on the ground, sipping moisture where the 

 bright sunlight reached the beds of the streams. Except when alighted they 

 Avere very difficult to catch, as there are neither roads nor paths in that wild 

 country ; heavily thorned shrubs were plentiful, and not a square rod of level 

 surface was to be found." 



Mr. Hulst thinks it probable that this species is to be found in central and 

 southern Arizona, in the mountains Avhere violets grow, but it must be local and 

 much restricted. It is the most southern species of its genus, and its affinities are 

 with the Ajjhrodife sub-group. 



