Publ. 5. VI. 1913. ARGYNNIS. By Dr. Ta. Lenmany. 409 
from ¢ in the paler ground-colour and the deep chocolate-brown, occasionally nearly black, shading of the inner 
half of both wings. All the markings of the upper surface much heavier than in g. On the under surface the 
sexes differ but little, the colouring of the 2 being somewhat duller. Expanse: 3,0’—4,0’. — Egg conoidal, 
truncated, shorter than broad, honey-yellow; the vertical ribs partly extending to the apex, partly ending at 
24 of the distance from the base. The caterpillar, when first hatched, is greenish, mottled with brown, later 
chocolate-brown, after the last moult velvety-black, beneath chocolate-coloured. Head blackish, shaded with 
chestnut-brown behind. The body is ornamented with 6 rows of shining black branching spines marked with 
orange-red at the base. In the North the eggs are mostly deposited in August; the young larvae go in lethargy 
immediately after being hatched from the eggs, hibernating, and feeding to maturity in early spring; in the 
southern States, however, they often hibernate after several moults; this probably accounts for the early butter- 
flies one occasionally sees, from which a second brood may result; like all the other known larvae of Ar- 
gynnis, they only feed at night. Pupa dark brown, shaded with reddish-brown or slaty-grey, sometimes glossy, 
sometimes dead leaf-like, a trifle compressed laterally; head and wing cases very prominent. The pupal 
state lasts about 16 days. — cybele ranges over the northern and middle Atlantic States of North America, 
from Nova Scotia and Maine, where it is rather scarce, southward to Virginia and North Carolina (Macon Co.), 
westward to Illinois and along the Mississippi Valley to Nebraska. ScupDER draws the line of its western limits 
through the middle of Dakota and Kansas. In the North it is rather abundant in June and July, stray 
specimens appearing already in the middle of May; one meets it until September on blossoming clover- 
fields, in gardens and along roads, eagerly visiting the blossoms of thistles, Asclepias tuberosa and other 
flowers. cybele has often been confounded with aphrodite, indeed northern specimens are not much larger, with 
the under surface, especially of the 99, generally very dusky brown, whereas those from Virginia are very 
large, with heavy black markings above and the under surface of the hindwings reddish-brown. In the West 
(Nebraska) its colour is brighter, more red, the under side very light, near to cinnamon-red. — As A. 
carpenteri Ldw. we find described a dwarf variety of cybele first discovered by Lieut. W. L. CARPENTER on Taos 
Peak in northern New Mexico, above the limits of tree-growth, at an altitude of about 9500 ft. It is very 
similar to small-sized specimens found on the North-East coast, in Maine and Nova Scotia, but differs consi- 
derably from western specimens, as f. i. those from Nebraska. Since cybele has not been observed either 
elsewhere in New Mexico or in Colorado, it seems as though this really northern species ferms an isolated 
colony in this remote south-western part of the Rockies. In the East, from New York to Virginia, cybele 
is confined to the plains, being replaced at higher altitudes by aphrodite. That this tribe which is isolated on 
Mt. Taos does not descend to a lower altitude in order to migrate farther North, is to be explained either by 
the difference of the climate or the ebsence of the food-plant; one may assume that atthe time when a change 
took place in the climate, carpenteri wes cut off from the main body, very much like Oeneis semida which, as 
Grote and ScuppDER have shown, were in the East stranded on the summit of Mt. Washington in New Hamp- 
shire, where it still exists as an isolated colony, the species being otherwise at home in Labrador and in the Rocky 
Mts. — bartschi Rezj/ is an interesting aberrative from of cybele having all the spots and other markings 
both of the upper and lower surface confluescent so as to form more or less complete bands, all of which, ho- 
wever, aside from the somewhat paler shade of the upper surface, retain their normal colour. This change 
has mainly affected the distal half of both wings. Here we find at the same time all the veins aborted, in 
part even completely absent, whereas in the inner half, especially of the hindwing, where the markings are 
more normal, also the veins are complete and normal (peroneuric aberration). Hand in hand with this 
reduction of the veins we observe a modification of the shape of the wings, the forewings being much narrower, 
the hindwings more elongate, and oval than in normal specimens. On the under surface of the hindwings the 
submarginal band is, in contradistinction to typical cybele, very narrow and faded. This aberration has been 
repeatedly taken in recent years near Roxbury in the State of Massachussetts, where it does not seem to_be 
very scarce. — baal Newcomb is the name given to a melanotic form of the 9. 
A. aphrodite F. (= daphnis Mart., cypris Edw.) (85 d) is, like alcestis, cipris and halcyone, by some 
authors treated as a form of cybele; but it is considerably smaller, and easy to distinguish by having the 
yellow submarginal band on the under surface of the hindwing much narrower, frequently, especially in 3, even 
wholly wanting, being replaced by the brown ground-colour. The ¢ is, in comparison with other species 
of this group, much smaller in proportion than the 2; its ground-colour is brighter reddish fulvous than in 
cybele, obscured with much less brown at the base of the wings; the markings more delicate; the median 
band is formed of small crescents, separated by wide spaces and nearly obsolete on the costal margin. Under- 
neath the forewing has the base and inner margin brighter red; the silvery marginal and apical spots are very 
decided, while in cybele they are usually wanting or indicated by a few scales only. Basal area of hindwing 
mostly brown, the yellow submarginal band more or less encroached upon by the dark ground-colour. © 
Vv 52 
carpenteri. 
bartschi. 
baal. 
aphrodite. 
