68 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



less commonly from the north. It is always a great thrill to get one 

 of these lost wanderers, but actually they do not mean very much. 



The regular, or more or less frequent, visitors, however, are of 

 considerable importance. For if you are really to understand the 

 butterflies of any region you must be able to distinguish the permanent 

 residents from the visitors ; and Virginia, with four faunal zones, 

 with high mountain peaks offering favorable conditions for northern 

 species, a broad coastal plain widely open to the south, and broad 

 avenues coming in from the Mississippi valley, is most unusually 

 tempting to visitors from all directions. 



No less than six additions were made to the list of Virginia butter- 

 flies this year. Three of these were to have been expected, but three 

 were wholly unexpected. 



In the middle of June, in company with Mr. and Mrs. Ernest L. 

 Bell, we found Dukes' skipper (Atrytonc dukesi) (fig. 65), previously 

 known only from Mobile, Ala., on Pocaty Creek, in Norfolk County. 

 On the next day we took a southern monarch (Da nans plcxippus 

 nigrippus) (fig. 64), not recorded from the United States, in Surry 

 County, and later, early in September, found others in eastern Prin- 

 cess Anne County. The third unexpected capture was the Florida 

 viceroy (Basilarchia archippus floridcnsis) (fig. 67) not known from 

 nearer than southern Alabama, which was common in eastern Princess 

 Anne County early in September. 



The most interesting of the expected additions to the list was the 

 very rare early hairstreak {Brora laeta), of which Prof. Lorus J. 

 Milne captured a specimen at Mountain Lake, Giles County. One 

 day in the latter part of April along a roadside in Frederick County 

 I captured a Virginia white (Pieris zrirginiensis) (fig. 68, right). In 

 western Frederick County we found the Olympian marble (Zegris 

 olympia) (fig. 68, left) rather common. 



Somehow no account of Virginia butterflies seems quite complete 

 without a mention of the magnificent diana fritillary (Argynnis 

 cliana). Much to our surprise, we found this more numerous in 

 Surry County on the coastal plain than we have ever seen it elsewhere. 

 Mrs. Barnes, whose garden we examined, told us that she had seen as 

 many as 25 at one time about her butterfly-bush. 



As in past years, we are under deep obligations to many of our 

 friends who have generously furnished us with records of their cap- 

 tures and turned over to us specimens of unusual interest. 



