ARGYNNIS. By Dr. Tu. Lenmann. 407 
they appear rather late in the morning, after the rays of the sun have warmed the ground and penetrate into 
the mountain-ravines, and they disappear as a rule again towards 4 oclock in the afternoon. The principal 
season is July and August, the ¢¢ appearing somewhat before the 99, in North Carolina at the end of June; 
some stray 99 are still found at the end of September. 
In Epwarps’ Butterflies of N. A. we find the figure of a fossil butterfly found in the Miocene strata 
in Croatia. The similarity between this and the ¢ of A. diana is very striking. Oswatp Hzer, from whose 
work (Die Insektenfauna der Tertiirgebilde von Oeningen und von Rodoboj in Kroatien, 1847—53) the figure 
was taken which in the text is named Vanessa pluto and whose colours seem in parts preserved, points himself 
to this resemblance which is, “besides in the shape, especially evident in the black ground-colour and the 
pale yellow marginal band of spots, the several parts of which are clearly separated by the veins, reaching 
the termen and each enclosing two black ocelli. Since the fossil is considerably smaller than A. diana, perhaps 
it is more nearly allied to Vanessa’. Together with pluto there were found dragon-flies with spotted wings, 
similar to those found in the southern United States (EDWARDS). 
: A. nokomis Hdw. (86a). ¢ above uniform fiery fulvous, similar to A. leto, with the characteristic 
submarginal markings, which are rather heavier than in A. aphrodite. Basal area but very slightly obscured. 
Termen bordered by two parallel lines, the outer quite fine, the inner heavier, the enclosed space fulvous like the 
ground-colour, dissected by the black nervules into isolated spots. The spots in the discal row small, roundish; 
on the hindwings the submarginal lunules are separated from each other and from the inner marginal line. Under 
surface greenish golden-yellow, the forewings laved with pink at the base and on the inner margin, the apical 
portion golden-yellow. The anterior 6 submarginal spots brightly silvered. Hindwings with large silvery spots 
edged with black, in the outer row all around, the others only on the inside. Abdominal margin and the basal 
part of the costa slightly silvered. The Q has the ground-colour of the upper surface pale brownish-yellow, 
similar to A. leto 9, slightly shaded outwardly with fulvous; the black markings much broader and not so 
sharply defined as in the g; the nervules are also broadly scaled with black, the whole tending to fuse and run 
into one another to such an extent that the yellow ground-colour disappears almost completely from base 
to discal area, leaving in the outer half only some relatively small, roundish or subquadrate spots resembling 
in shape, distribution and size the blue spots in diana 2 and enclosing, like these, the rounded extradiscal 
black spots. The under surface like that of the g, with all the markings heavier; but the ground-colour is not 
greenish, but more clear yellow, and the margins of both wings as well as the apex of the forewing much irro- 
rated with black. The hindwing has the basal portion more obscured by greenish-brown tints, less shaded 
with black. Expanse of g 3,4’, of 2 up to 3,6”. — SrreckerR regarded nokomis as a pale form of 
A. cybele, developed in the arid salt steppes of Utah and Arizona. First described from a specimen received 
by Epwarbs in 1862 through the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, marked “Bitter Root Mountain’. 
Later, in 1871, Lieut. WHEELER captured on an exploring trip through Arizona 5 gg 299. But it has ever’ been 
very rare. Besides in Arizona, it has also been taken in southern Utah. Nothing is known of the life-history 
of the species. 
A. nitocris Edw. (86 a) was treated by EDWARDS as a separate species, whereas other authors regarded 
it as a form of A. nokomis, intermediate between this and Jeto. As in many of the North American Argynnis, 
we find also regarding nitocris much uncertainty, the more so since Epwarps himself adressed STRECKER’s 
figure of nokomis 2 (in Report on the RurrnerR Expedition) as an aberrative form of nitocris. The ¢ resembles 
above nokomis; bright fulvous, much obscured from base to middle of disk, except on a portion of the cell 
in the forewing. The space between the two marginal lines rather wide, uniformly fulvous. The spots in the 
submarginal row on the forewings sagittate, the anterior ones touching one another and the inner line; the 
outer discal spots on the forewings irregular in shape and size, on the hindwing minute. Underside of the 
forewings cinnamon-red almost throughout, on the apex a small ochre-yellow patch enclosing a brown 
spot. Hindwing from base to beyond the second, outer row of spots, as well as the outer margin, deep rusty 
redbrown, occasionally dusted with grey-green, and with a broad submarginal band of rufous. The silvery spots 
as in nocomis. 2 above blackish-brown, darker than nokomis 2. The black markings from base to middle of disk 
nearly lost in the dark ground-colour. The median rows of spots pale yellow, the submarginal spots whitish, 
as in nokomis. The light spots of the hindwings narrower than in most examples of nokomis, owing to the 
broad edging of brown upon the nervules. Under surface of the forewings somewhat deeper red than in ¢, with 
the apex clearer yellow. Hindwing darker brown, with the yellow submarginal band divided into spots by the 
broadly fuscous nervules. Silverspots as in g. Expanse of ¢ 3,0—3,3’’, of 3,3—3,8’. Arizona, Colorado 
and Nevada. The J type came from White Mts. in N. E. Arizona. Specimens from Colorado differ from those 
of Arizona, besides by their larger size, by the darker red of the entire under surface of the forewings; the 
inner half of the hindwings from the base to beyond the second row of spots, which in Arizona specimens is 
nokomis. 
nitocris. 
