Of Alope ♂, 62 per cent. have 6 ocelli, 25 per cent. under 3, 8 per cent. 0.

Of Alope ♀, 24 per cent. have 6, 48 per cent. have under 3, 16 per cent. have 0.

3.—The dark Satyrus which inhabits Illinois and westward has gone by the name of Nephele, though differing somewhat from Nephele of the east. I was struck by the difference between a series sent me by the late Mr. Walsh from Galena, years ago and when I first began collecting butterflies, and a series of Nephele taken in the Catskills, and I have always kept the two apart in my cases, considering the Illinois form as at least a well marked variety. Mr. Worthington has recently written me: “I have received a lot of Nephele from New Hampshire and am surprised at the difference between them and the Illinois Nephele.”

The males of this last are almost black, the ocelli are very small and without rings. But in some examples there is a faint russet or yellowish tint about the ocelli, and perhaps on the space between them. On the under side the rings are russet or ochraceous, on both wings. The females are almost invariably and uniformly dark, and only occasionally is there a paler shade over the extra discal area of fore wings. Out of a number of females I find but one in which there is a clouded yellow space about the ocelli, and only three on which there are yellow, though hazy, ocellar rings. Of 16 ♂, 14 have 6 small ocelli beneath, 1 has 5, 1 has 2. Of 19 ♀, 2 have 6, 2 have 5, 6 have 4, 2 have 3, 6 have 2, 1 has 1. This form prevails exclusively to the Rocky Mountains. I have received it from Nebraska, Montana, Colorado and New Mexico, but Alope is unknown to me from that region.

In Can. Ent., ix., 141, 1877, I gave the history of Nephele, bred from eggs laid by a typical female from the Catskill Mountains, Hunter, N. Y. In fall of 1878, I wrote to several correspondents for eggs, and by their good will obtained many. Prof. Lintner and Dr. Bailey sent eggs of Alope from Albany, N. Y. Rev. Mr. Hulst, with the zeal and kindness which distinguishes him, crossed the rivers from Brooklyn to Hoboken, and brought away females of Alope, from which he obtained eggs for me. I got Alope eggs here at Coalburgh from three females. A friend at Hunter sent eggs of Nephele, and Mr. Worthington sent many of the Illinois form from Chicago. In each case the parent was sent with the eggs that the type might be noted. From Albany, Hoboken is 150 miles south; Coalburgh 800 miles southwest; Hunter is 35 miles southwest of Albany and of about 2,000 feet greater elevation. Chicago is about 800 miles northwest of Coalburgh and 1,000 west of Albany. So that the five localities are separated by considerable distances, and there has probably been no intercommunication at any time so far as these insects are concerned.

The eggs of the six lots were kept apart and as the larvæ hatched (at from 14 to 28 days from deposition, depending on the temperature), they were placed on sods in separate pots and left in the coolest room in my house. But some of the Illinois eggs were sent to Mr. C. P. Whitney, at Milford, N. H., who offered to put them on ice. I wished to try the effect of cold in retarding the hatching. Early in February I received the boxes again and found a number of healthy larvæ, with a few unbroken eggs. These last proved to be dead. The eggs had been sent in a paper pill box which was within a flat tin box, and this was set directly on the ice. The young larvæ when I received them were fixed to the rough sides of their box and had not been attacked by mould, the enemy most to be dreaded. Mr. Whitney wrote that he was notified in December that the ice-house was empty, and he thereupon removed the tin box without opening it, and placed it in a snow bank, where it remained till I sent for it. The larvæ may have been emerging from the eggs when he first received them, or perhaps did so in the interval between ice-house and snow. This method of keeping larvæ which become lethargic immediately upon leaving the egg will probably be found successful with all species of butterflies which have that habit—as the large Argynnids—and make it possible to breed them in numbers. I have been unable to find any other mode of wintering such larvæ without a certain loss of most of them.

On 23rd Jan., 1879, I transferred such of the Satyrid larvæ as were living (and this included some of each lot) to fresh sods, and 28th Jan. noticed that several were feeding. One Hunter Nephele passed 1st moult 23rd Feb’y, and before 4th March several of the same lot had passed the moult. But the Illinois Nephele and all Alope lingered. One Coalburgh Alope and one from Hoboken passed 1st moult 7th March, by which date the Hunter Nephele spoken of was swollen for 2nd moult, which it passed two days later. Two Illinois Nephele passed 1st moult 8th March. To the end some of the Hunter Nephele were in advance of all, and some of the Illinois examples lingered behind all. The stages of Coalburgh Alope were as follows:

1st moult passed7th March.
2nd ” ”21st ”1st to 2nd—14 days.
3rd ” ”14th April.2nd to 3rd—24 ”
4th ” ”2nd May.3rd to 4th—18 ”
In chrysalis26th ”4th to chrys.—24 ”
Imago issued9th June.chr. to imago—14 ”

Of Hunter Nephele I find no notes, but in 1877 the stages were

1st moultto 2nd—23 days.
2nd ”to 3rd—14 ”
3rd ”to 4th—14 ”
4th ”to chrys.—28 ”
Chrys.to imago—14 ”