564 Mr. H. J. Elwes on a 



others from Messrs. Strecker and Geddes. I have also 

 seen some of the best collections in the United States, 

 and studied all, or almost all, the large mass of scattered 

 literature and notes on the genus by Messrs. W. H. and 

 H. Edwards, Mead, Geddes, Scudder, and Strecker. I 

 have repeatedly tried to construct a key by which the sup- 

 posed species could be identified, and can only say that 

 I have completely failed. I am certain that no entomo- 

 logist, who received to-day the most perfect collection 

 which could be got together from all parts of North 

 America, and had to classify and describe them without 

 regard to the work of others, would make anything like 

 as many species as have been recognised. It seems pre- 

 sumptive for a man to set aside much of what has been 

 written by those who have seen, both living and dead, so 

 many more specimens than I have seen, and yet I 

 cannot, in dealing with the American forms, adopt 

 as specific, characters so slight and variable that they 

 would not be recognised as such in the much better 

 known European species. And to show that it is 

 not my ignorance alone which makes the difiiculty, I 

 may say that it is just those species which I have 

 personally observed in life, and which I have most 

 carefully examined, such as A. eurynome, A. liliana, 

 A. monticola, and A. meadii, in which I have found 

 my uncertainty the greatest. Mr. Strecker' s remarks, 

 on p. 118 of his Catalogue, are so much to the point 

 that I will quote them here, and can only say that 

 if our American colleagues do not agree with them, 

 let them rather point out how others may understand 

 their conclusions, than blame me for not adopting what 

 I cannot see: — "The Argynnides of the western slope, 

 or Pacific side of the Rocky Mountains, are without 

 doubt, if we except, perhaps, the Coliades, the most 

 difficult of all the North American Diurnae to deal with, 

 as they not only run into certain variations, but again 

 into subvariations, and even further. The two species 

 monticola and zerene, first considered identical by Dr. 

 Boisduval, are perhaps the most perplexing ; each of 

 these bears the same relation to some of their varieties 

 as does niohe to its var. eris, and acUppe to clcodoxa, but 

 presenting by no means the stability of forms of these 

 European variations, but branching out into endless and 

 endless varieties until the student is completely at a loss 

 to know where or to what they may belong." 



