LORQUINIA 
Published by the Lorquin Natural History Club 
(Org-anized— August 1913) 
Edited by Paul D. R. Ruthlin.ar, 1051 West 23rd vSt., I^os Angeles. 
Volume 1 
Number 7 
Los Angeles, CaL, February 1917 |i**Pe"'^ear 
LEPIDOPTERA 
A Few Notes on a Collecting Trip Around Palm Springs, Riverside 
County, California. 
I collected from March 19th to April 7th, 1916, around Palm 
Springs, which is situated on the edge of the Colorado Desert, and at 
the base of the eastern side of the San Jacinto Mountains. The eleva- 
tion at the Springs is 455 ft. above sea level, whilst in the canyons on 
each side it reaches 1500 to 2000 ft. in the accessible parts. 
I had expected to collect more on the desert, but, with the excep- 
tion of Lycaena marina and a few Theclas, did not find many things 
flying. 
In former years I had heard of the desert sands being carpeted 
with massed colors of brilliant Abronias, Gilias and the desert Aster, 
but this spring no such sight was to be seen, as probably the excep- 
tionally heavy rains during the two previous months had washed the 
seeds away or covered up the plants. This may account for the 
scarcity of butterflies on the desert. However, the flowers, including 
several varieties of cactus, were very plentiful in the canyons where I 
spent the greater part of my time collecting. Though handicapped 
by strong wdnds, vet I managed to take 38 different species of butter- 
flies, 20 of which were new to my collection. 
The following is a list of my captures : 
Melitaea gabbii, resembling M. paJIa of central and northern Cali- 
fornia. 
Melitaea cliara. These diminutive butterflies were very numer- 
out around Beleperone californica bushes. 
Melitaea augusta ( ?) I came upon a species of Melitaea which 
I take to be augusta, but am not yet certain as to its identity. 
Synchloe californica. This interesting butterfly, described in 
1906 by Mr. Wm. Greenwood Wright, I found very abundant in 
