45 



PRELIMINARY NOTE UPON CHIONOBAS ((ENEIS) MACOUNII, Edw. 



By James Fletcher, Ottawa, Can. 



In the Canadian Entomologist (XVII, p. 74, 1885) Mr. W. H. Edwards 

 describes the male of Chionohas macounii from about a dozen specimens 

 discovered June 28, 1884, by Prof. 

 John Macoun, the Canadian Govern- 

 ment Botanist, at Nepigon on the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway at the north- 

 ern extremity of Lake Superior. In 

 the last "week of June, 1885, the same 

 collector took a male and two females 

 at a far distant locality, Morley, in the 

 district of Alberta, N. W. T., lying at 

 the eastern base of the Rocky Mount- 

 ains. Up to the present time these 

 are the only known stations for this 

 handsome species, "whicli, in some 

 respects, is the most remarkable and 

 distinct species of the whole genus. 

 In size and general appearance it ap- 

 proaches nearest to G. californica, 

 but the sexual bar oi androconia, such 

 a conspicuous feature in the males of 

 Chionobas, is entirely wanting in the 

 present species. The average expanse of the wing is, $ 55-65™™, 9 

 65-70™™. In the Annual Report of the Entomological Society of On- 

 tario, 1888, page 85, is an account of an expedition I had the pleasure 

 of making with Mr. S. H. Scudder to Nepigon in the beginning of July, 

 1888, for the jjurpose of getting eggs so as to obtain a knowledge of the 

 earlier stages. Although local, the species was found to be compara- 

 tively abundant and about 250 eggs were secured. To reduce as much 

 as possible the chance of failure in breeding these were distributed to 

 about twenty difterent entomologists in various parts of America and 

 Europe. The eggs hatched in three weeks, and notwithstanding that 

 the larvae ate readily of all grasses and sedges offered them there was 

 great mortality amongst the growing caterpillars, and the only speci- 

 mens I know^ of which were carried safely through the winter were those 

 sent to Mr. C. E. Holmgren, in Sweden, and three which I had myself 

 at Ottawa. These hatched July 27, 1888, passed first molt August 17, 

 grew very little before winter, and hibernated in the second stage. 

 They were left out-of doors upon a living jjlant of Carex ])edunculata 

 and rested exposed upon tlie leaves, where they finished feeding with- 

 out any protection and without spinning any silk. 

 3377_No. 2 2 



Fig. 6.— CEneis macounii: Full-grown larva; A, 

 from above; J5, trom side, beginninj; of cut; 

 C, from side, end of cut — naturalsize (original). 



