128 THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE WEST COAST 



that was opened up across the interior country to New Orleans, 

 about 1885. Since that time it has become very abundant in Cali- 

 fornia, especially in the southern part, and has become a pest, as 

 the larvae feed upon the leaves of the passion-vine, so that the 

 vine becomes a nuisance on account of the caterpillars, and has to 

 be removed. 



Many introduced plants prove to be more vigorous and aggres- 

 sive than the native ones ; and so it is with this introduced butter- 

 fly; it is hardy and restless and, like another introduced species, 

 Rapae, it flies at all times and at all seasons, seemingly bent on 

 conquest. And now it is, like Rapae, so well established that it has 

 become a fixture for all time ; just the same as in ornithology, the 

 English sparrow has become a permanent inhabitant of America. 



105. Euptoieta Claudia. 



Plate XII; Figure 105, Male; Central Montana, July, 

 1890; Author. 

 This species is said in some books to inhabit Southern California 

 and Arizona ; and I insert this plate of it on that account ; but I 

 have never seen one of them flying west of the Sierra Nevada 

 divide, and I think that it is not found in any part of the West 

 Coast territory. Yet it is likely to be found in the warmer parts of 

 the Coast States, in the dry, hilly sections, at any time. As the 

 figure shows, it has the same system of spotting as the Argynnids, 

 but no American Euptoieta ever has any silver on any spots, and 

 all the markings of both sides have a pale and washed-out appear- 

 ance. 



Genus ARGYNNIS. 



This group of butterflies, many of them large and handsome, is 

 of well-nigh universal occurrence, being found high up on the 

 mountains at timber-line, and so on down to the lower heights, 

 and to the level of the sea. They are moreover very evenly dis- 

 tributed, in that no one group of large ones or of small ones are 

 found solely at high or low altitudes. From 3,000 to 5,000 feet 

 elevation, however, is where they do most abound, and on the 

 breezy, upland slopes of the hills and mountains, rather than on 

 the plains. All the Argynnids are fond of feeding on flowers. 



