Appreciating the value to students in geographical distribution of faunal lists of a given region, with notes thereon, on the interest that such lists have for beginners in the same field in after years, we have concluded to publish here a list of the Diurnal Lepidoptera known to us to have been taken in the vicinity of Philadelphia. A circle drawn around the new City Hall, with a radius of ten miles, is the line of limit to the “vicinity” here treated of.

The following is a list of butterflies caught near Fort Qu'Appelle, Northwest Terr., by Mrs. Cora E. Rose and her two little sons. Mrs. Rose describes the locality as follows:—“Those sent were all caught within a radius of about half a mile, in the territory of Assiniboia, thirty miles north of an old Hudson Bay Post called Fort Qu'Appelle, and distant west from Winnipeg some three hundred and twenty-five miles; the only foliage is willow and poplar.”

Aegiale Streckeri, n. sp., ♂.—Expands from2¼ inches to 3 inches. Upper side.—Superiors rich brown, but not as bright, nor has the brown as much red in it, as in yuccœ. There are three sub-apical costal white spots; a lemon-yellow spot at end of cell; there is a row of five yellow spots running across the wing, parallel with the exterior margin; the upper two are small and square in shape; the lowe three are small and triangular, and there is one in each of the three median interspaces. The inferiors have a yellow marginal border about 1/8 inch in width, the wing being otherwise immaculate, and is clothed with long, silky brown hair. Under side.—Superiors have the spots repeated. Inferiors are gray with a varying number of small white spots—one specimen having two and the other five. The female is larger and has the same number of spots as the male; the three sub-apical spots are white and the remainder yellow; in the female the five spots on the wing are in two series, the two upper being nearer the exterior margin, and the three lower are nearer the base; in the other words, they do not form a continuous line as in the male. This species has been confounded, in collections, with cofaqui, Strecker, which was described froma female. The male of cofaqui, is marked practically like the female, but the male has the long hair on the inferiors as in the new species.

Male.—Expands 1.50 inches. Upper side: Superiors tawny with a fuscous border a little more than one-eighth inch in width; there are from one to four small subapical tawny spots in the fuscous border; at end of cell a dark spot which may or may not be connected with the stigma; stigma rather more than an eighth inch in length, very narrow and unbroken, and extending to inner margin. Inferiors have the same fuscous border and tawny central area. Under side: Superiors with tawny central area and border same as upper side; there is a large triangular spot extending into the wing from the base. The tawny colour above this spot is of a darker hue than that below and outside of it. Inferiors very light brown, generally with four or five very faint tawny spots in the central area.

Melitea Maria, n. sp.—Male: Expands 1½ inches. Upper side. Primaries. The outer margin of the wing has along its edge about eight brick-red spots; internal to these is another row of yellow spots, separated from the former by a very small space. Next comes a row of yellow spots, the first four having an outward curve, and the lower three an inward curve. There then comes a row of quadrate brick-red spots, nearly parallel to the preceding yellow row. At the end of the cell are three yellow quadrate spots. The cell has in it two comparatively large red spots, outlined with black, and having a yellow patch between them and another toward the base. There is also a quadrate yellow spot with concave sides in the space below the third median nerve. The secondaries are marked in a similar manner.

I have received beautifully fresh specimens of Argynnis atossa taken in the mountains near Tehachapi, Southern California, July 7th, 1895. The inner half of the superiors below is bright red, almost a blood red. The species was described by Mr. Edwards from a specimen taken by Mr. H. K. Burrison. It is quite distinct and ranks with diana, idalia and nokomis as one of our handsomest Argynnids.

Eudamus coyate: Expands 2⅛i inches. Primaries dark glossy brown, several shades darker than Eudam. bathyllus; fringes of same colour as the wings. The apices of the wings run more to a point than in other species of the genus. There are no markings on the primaries, although there are some very faint indications of markings, which are not brought out by transmitted light. Secondaries immaculate and same colour as primaries, but with well marked dirty white fringes.

Pyrameis Cardui— Usually common; some years quite rare.

Junonia cœnia.— Quite local; never very common. Mr. Scudder, on page 501, speaks of its “rapid, strong and enduring flight.” This would seem to indicate that the habits of this insect in the New England States differ materially from those in this locality or further south. It is rare that this butterfly is here observed over a foot from the ground, and then its flight is most erractic, and usually consists of a new fluttering strokes of the wing followed by an idel sail. This is also the manner of flight from Virginia to Florida, according to the observtions of E. M. Aaron.

There seems to be some misapprehension in regard to the validity of our species of Pamphila, and inasmuch as I have been studying our Hesperidæ for some years past, I thought some remarks on the subject would not be inappropriate. We now have in this genus ninety-six species as they would apper in a list according to the generally accepted specific values. With the exception of about two groups, I consider the species remarkably well defined and constant, and if you one become thoroughly familiar with them, there is not the slighest difficulty in separating any of them at sight.

I wish to make a contribution to the literature of the subject of “egg dropping,” and place on record in an entomological journal an observation I made nine years ago. I do this with the object of calling general attention to this subject, which I think an interesting one, and in hope that lepidopterists may be on the look out for this method of ovidpositing in all the species of the genus.

The opprobrium cast on the lepidopterist has been that he did not study the anatomy of his specimens, but depended too much on maculation and colour. There has been much truth in the reproach, as there are few of us who would destroy a rare or unique specimen to examine the neuration. Fortunately the time has arrived when the neuration can be studied with the greatest ease and accuracy, and permanently rerecorded in a photograph, or, more strictly speaking, a radiograph. The anatomy of a living chrysalis may be studied without removing the cocoon, and also the internal anatomy of the thorax and abdomen can be fairly well seen, and in time the process may be improved for this work.

Some time ago Mr.Henry G. Willard, of Grinnell, Iowa, very kindly sent me of the full grown larvæ of this species. I made a few notes at the time which may be of use, owing to the fact that nothing has been publihsed in regard to the early stages of this butterfly. The food plant at the home of the insect is Rumex longifolius, but they readily ate our common species of dock found here. The full grown larva were onisciform in shape, grass greein in colour, and 20 mm in length. Most of them had a narrow, claret-coloured dorsal stripe, and the entire body, under a glass, was seen to be clothed with minute black hairs.

The alpha elements O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, Cl, and Ar are produced together in massive stars and their abundances are expected to evolve in lockstep. Both H II regions and planetary nebulae serve as interstellar probes of alpha element abundances. We have measured abundances for the alpha elements O, Ne, S, Cl, and Ar in over 130 Galactic Types I and II and halo PNe in a consistent manner from our own optical (3600–9600Å) spectra (Henry, Kwitter, & Balick 2004). Figure 1 is a plot of Ne vs. O for a combined dataset containing H II regions, blue compact galaxies, and our sample of planetary nebulae. All object types appear to be consistent with the expected linear relation between Ne and O. Similar plots of Cl and Ar vs. O show the same behavior. However, S vs. O is an exception.