The Butterfly Book / A Popular Guide to a Knowledge of the Butterflies of North America

by W. J. Holland

Early Stages.—Mr. Edwards, in "The Butterflies of North America," vol. ii, has given us a beautiful figure of the egg of this species. Of the other stages we have no knowledge.

A. eurynome is a very common butterfly in Colorado, Montana, and British America, and is the representative of a considerable group, to which the four preceding species belong, if, indeed, they are not local races or climatic varieties of eurynome, a fact which can be demonstrated only by the careful breeding of specimens from various localities. There is a fine field here for study and experiment.

(46) Argynnis montivaga, Behr, Plate X, Fig. 5, ♂, under side (Montivaga).

Butterfly.—This species in both sexes very closely approximates the foregoing. The main points of distinction consist in the somewhat darker red of the upper side of the wings, the slightly heavier dark markings, and the absence on the under side, especially of the hind wings, of the olive-green shade which is characteristic of typical specimens of A. eurynome. The mottling of the basal and median areas on this side is reddish-brown. The spots are more or less silvered on the under side. Expanse, ♂, 1.75 inch; ♁, 1.90 inch.

Early Stages.—Unknown.

This species is found in the Sierras of California and among the mountains of Nevada.

(47) Argynnis egleis, Boisduval, Plate XIII, Fig. 13, ♂; Fig. 14, ♁, under side; Fig. 15, ♁ (Egleis).

Butterfly, ♂.—The ground-color of the wings on the upper side is deep fulvous, with rather heavy black markings. The wings on the under side are pale fulvous, mottled with buff on the subapical interspaces of the fore wings. The basal and discal areas of the hind wings are mottled with brown, which in many specimens is of a distinctly purplish shade. In some specimens the inner half of the primaries is rather heavily laved with red. The spots on the under side are either silvered or without silver, in the latter case being pale buff.

♁.—The female is much like the male, but paler. The red on the under side of the primaries is deeper, and the purplish-brown on the inner surface of the secondaries is also darker. Expanse, ♂, 2.25 inches; ♁, 2.50 inches.