2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 95 



rcpens) and of hepatica (Hepatica americana) indicated that this 

 region had, at least for the most part, escaped the numerous fires that 

 have ravaged these woods in the past, and suggested that it might 

 offer something of interest in its fauna and flora. 



Revisiting the locahty on May 30, we were somewhat surprised 

 to find a gold-banded skipper (Rhabdoides cellus), a rare butterfly in 

 this region. On June 3 we caught seven. Evidently the butterfly was 

 common enough here to make the working out of its life history a 

 comparatively simple task. So we undertook an intensive study of 

 the insect and were fortunate enough to secure abundant material of 

 all stages. 



As no general account of this interesting butterfly has heretofore 

 been published, it has seemed to us worth while to preface the record 

 of our personal observations with the references to previous notices 

 of the species, a list of the localities from which it is known, and a 

 brief history. This appeared to us especially desirable for the reason 

 that the gold-banded skipper is an excellent example of a butterfly 

 with its normal habitat in the highlands of Mexico and Southern Ari- 

 zona and a secondary habitat, in which it appears to have an uncertain 

 and precarious foothold, in the more or less mountainous country near 

 the eastern seaboard from southern New York to Florida. 



In our study of this species we have been greatly aided by Capt. 

 N. D. Riley, Keeper of Entomology in the British Museum (Natural 

 History) , who was so very kind as to send us a list of all the specimens 

 from north of Mexico in the collections under his care ; by Dr. William 

 J. Gerhard, who generously sent us a list of the specimens in the 

 Strecker and Snyder collections in the Field Museum of Natural 

 History, Chicago ; by Ernest L. Bell, of Flushing, Long Island, N. Y., 

 who was so good as to supply us with a list of the specimens in his 

 collection, and also of those that he had given to the American Museum 

 of Natural History, New York; by Edward S. Thomas of the Ohio 

 State ]\Iuseum, at Columbus, who most courteously sent us the records 

 (hitherto unpublished) from Ohio ; by Prof. Franklin Sherman, Head 

 of the Department of Entomology and Zoology at the Clemson Agri- 

 cultural College, who kindly sent us the records (unpublished) from 

 South Carolina ; by Dr. Hugo Kahl, of the Carnegie Museum, at Pitts- 

 burgh, Pa., who courteously permitted us to examine the specimens in 

 the William H. Edwards collection; and by Prof. Ellison A. Smyth, 

 Jr., formerly Head of the Department of Biology at the Virginia 

 Polytechnic Institute at Blacksburg, Va. (now retired and living at 

 Salem, Va.), who was so very good as to send us his notes on this 

 species. 



