CEETAIN BUTTERFLIES IN CANADA. 235 



On June 29th, 1882, while collecting at Point Pelee, I was astonished at capturing 

 in fair condition a specimen of Terias Mexicana, an insect, as far as known, hitherto unre- 

 corded anywhere in this western region. Mr. "W". H. Edwards, in his catalogue of the 

 Butterflies of America North of Mexico, gives as localities for this species, "Texas to 

 Arizona, California, occasionally in Kansas and Nebraska." It is scarcely possible that 

 the specimen taken by me during a two day's sojourn in that locality was the only one 

 existing there ; it is altogether likely there were others, and that the butterfly has estab- 

 lished itself in that district. This seems to be another example of a southern butterfly 

 migrating northwards, and it is quite possible that within a few years it may cover a 

 much more extended area, and perhaps become as common as the once rare Papilio cres- 

 phontes. 



Three specimens of another butterfly, new to our Canadian lists, were taken at the 

 same time and in the same locality ; these were Theda smilacis, Boisduval, or T. auburniana, 

 Harris, a species recorded as occurring in the Atlantic States, the Mississippi valley, and 

 in Texas. 



Twenty-three years ago, on May 24th, while collecting in a swamp in the out- 

 skirts of London, I captured two specimens of a handsome little Thecla, which proved to 

 be a new species, and was named by Mr. "W. H. Edwards of "West Virginia, Tliecla fœta. 

 For eight or ten years following I regularly visited that locality about the same date, but 

 never saw another specimen. That swamp has long since disappeared, and its site is now 

 thickly covered with dwellings. The next year a single example of the same species was 

 captured near the city of Quebec. Although nearly a cj^uarter of a century has since passed 

 away, and the number of observers in the meantime has greatly increased, we have no 

 knowledge of any other specimens of this Thecla having been taken in Canada, biit during 

 this interval the insect has been captured in West Virginia, and in one locality in Maine. 

 The flight of a Thecla, being short and jerky, seems to be incompatible with the idea of 

 the insect travelling any great distance, and, if this species had always been as rare as it 

 now is, it could scarcely have distributed itself over such an immense area. Doubtless we 

 have here an example of a butterfly once common, but which, from some unexplained 

 cause, has become almost extinct. 



