GENUS PAPILIO ' 83 



I have taken fine specimens near Spokane, and also in the Santa 

 Ritas, near the Mexican border, and it may be found in limited 

 numbers over all those vast semi-arid, intermediate regions ; but 

 I have never seen it abundant in any locality. One of my notes 

 reads that the larger and finer examples come from northern 

 rather than the southern localities. In flight it is tireless ; it seems 

 never to stop to feed or to rest, but is always in rapid flight, and 

 consequently it is difficult to capture. And when at length you 

 do succeed in taking one, the chances are that one or more of its 

 tails will be missing, and that therefore it is useless. 



Sex-marks, as explained under genus heading. 



Larval food-plants: Plum, cherry, the rubus group of plants, 

 and probably many desert plants of same order, such as hetero- 

 meles, Crataegus, fragraria, and many others. 



17. Papilio Eurymedon. 



Plate III ; Figure 17. Female, Greenhorn Mountains, Cal., 

 7,000 feet altitude ; June, 1888 ; Author. 



Eurymedon is a mountain butterfly, frequenting the mountain 

 slopes and canyons, up to about 8,000 feet altitude, but never 

 coming down to the low-lying plains and valleys, except occasion- 

 ally in the more northern parts of its range. It is a good feeder, 

 and likes to feed on the tall blossoms of the cnicus thistle, as they 

 sway in the wind, and also on the more humble horse-mints, the 

 brodiaeas, and gilias, all of them plants beloved of the butterflies. 

 When you see Eurymedon flying, though you want it ever so 

 much, you may better let it go, and save your legs, for you will 

 not catch it; but when it is feeding, or when at water, it is 

 approachable, and then is readily taken. 



In the north, it is darker than in the south, has shorter wings, 

 and the tails are broader. When living, and in flight, the tails are 

 usually twisted, as shown in the plate ; probably, indeed, always so. 



Sex-marks : The anal claspers ; the males are smaller, and more 

 lightly colored than the females. 



Larval Food-plant : Rhamnus Californica, or California Cof- 

 fee-bush. At present there is no other known food-plant. 



Habitat : All States west of the Rocky Mountains, to the Pacific 

 Ocean; and from Mexico north far into Canada, on both the 

 eastern and the western slopes of the mountains. 



