554 Mr. H. J. Elwes on a 



bushes at 3 — 4000 ft. ; and though I have taken it as 

 high as 6000 ft. in the French Alps, its range is usually 

 much lower ; Meyer-Dur says not above 4500 ft. 



A. frifiga is another eircumpolar species of very 

 similar distribution to the last, and varying much in 

 size and markings of the under side below. Labrador 

 specimens, as well as the few I have seen from Colorado 

 and Hudson Bay, may usually be distinguished by the 

 whitish or yellowish markings of the hind wing below 

 (except the patch nearest the costa, which even in the 

 form iinproha remains whitish) being partially or com- 

 pletely obscured by the reddish brown of the ground 

 colour. Improha is an extreme arctic form, which, 

 strange to say, exists in as widely remote localities as 

 Nova Zembla and Arctic America, and shows, in its 

 small size and dark colour, the same influences of a cold 

 and bad climate, as is shown by other arctic Lepidoptera, 

 but the markings and pattern are so nearly identical 

 with those of frigga that hardly anyone but Mr. Butler 

 could have described this highly interesting form with- 

 out alluding to the existence of what even he must 

 allow is an extremely near ally. 



A: did is a species which varies little, and is too well 

 known to require much remark. 



A. hellona^ is an American species, which occurs 

 frequently in many parts of the Northern United States 

 and British America east of the Eocky Mountains, and 

 extends to British Columbia, whence there is a specimen 

 in the British Museum : epithore replaces it in most 

 places on the Pacific coast, and is by Edwards considered 

 distinct, though I incline to Strecker's view that it is 

 only a variety. It may generally be recognised by the 

 paler colour, less heavily marked with black at the base 

 of the wings, and the rather less produced apex and less 

 angled outer margin of the fore wings. I have not seen 

 the variety named kreimhild by Strecker, which appears 

 to be found in the dryer parts of the Eocky Mountains 

 from Utah to Arizona. From the discription it would 

 seem to be a local race of epithore, as Edwards thinks. 



A. thore is a distinct species, rare and somewhat local 



* Mead says that " the larva of hellona resembles more closely 

 that of cybele than that of viyrina" thus affording additional 

 evidence of the artificial character of the genus Brenthis, erected 

 to contain these smaller Argynnides. He includes both hellona 

 and epitJiore in his list from Colorado. 



