566 Mr. H. J. Elwes on a 



A. aphrodite, A.cyhele, A.alcestis, A.cypris, A.lialcyone. 

 — This is a group of species or forms which are extremely 

 hard to define, and though Edwards and Scudder, and 

 most other North American entomologists, agree in 

 keeping them separate, I think it is very difficult, if not 

 impossible, to identify them unless you know their 

 habitat. I have a pretty good series of all except cypris, 

 which must be very close to, if not identical with, alcestis, 

 and, judging by the character of the median veins in the 

 fore wing of the male, and by the colour and pattern of 

 the under side, which are the best characters I know by 

 which to define the species, I am certainly inclined to fol- 

 low Strecker rather than Edwards. There have been so 

 many mistakes made in identifying these species by 

 collectors that their geographical distribution is not 

 very easy to follow out ; though Mr. Scudder's maps are 

 useful, they are by no means infallible, and the northern 

 and western range of aphrodite and cyhele is certainly 

 not defined at present. I received from Morrison a pair 

 of cyhele from Montana, w^hich agree with those taken by 

 Geddes in the North-west Territory of Canada, near 

 Edmonton, in being smaller than those from the eastern 

 states. According to Scudder and Edwards, however, 

 cyhele does not occur in Montana, and the Edmonton 

 habitat is quite isolated ; whilst aphrodite, which is un- 

 mentioned by Geddes in his lists of north-western butter- 

 flies in 'Canadian Entomologist,' vols. 15, p. 221, 16, 

 pp. 56 and 224, is stated by Scudder and Edwards to occur 

 at Edmonton. Either such experienced collectors as 

 Morrison and Geddes did not know aphrodite when they 

 saw it out of its usual range, or Scudder and Edwards 

 are mistaken. Though it seems undoubted that typical 

 eastern specimens of these species can be distinguished 

 (for the points of difference see Scudder, p. 566), yet the 

 differences are so slight that it may not be possible to 

 identify western specimens with one or the other, and this 

 difficulty seems to have been got over in Edwards' case 

 by creating other species, such as alcestis, cypris, and 

 halcyone, which cannot be identified with any certainty 

 from his figures or descriptions ; and which, notwith- 

 standing all that has been written upon them, must 

 remain, as far as I can see, "species dubise " to those 

 who have not specimens identified by their author at 

 hand for reference. 



