Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
VOL. XII. LONDON, ONT., FEBRUARY, 1880. No. 2
1. NEPHELE.—Kirby, Faun. Bor. Amer., 1837, described this species as follows: “Wings brown; primaries both above and below with a paler submarginal broad band including two eyelets; the upper ones surrounded by a paler atmosphere, with a black iris and white pupil; on the under side the atmosphere of the eyelets is most distinct and forms a kind of glory round them,” etc. Nothing is said of the sex, but apparently this is the description of a female. The wings of the male are blackish-brown, usually of uniform shade throughout—that is, in the typical male, corresponding to the female of Kirby. But there is a frequent departure from this type in the direction of _Alope_, the “pale atmosphere” about the ocelli appearing in the male, and in both sexes gradually widening and becoming less obscure till it culminates in a clear yellow band. When this is reached we have _Alope_, Fabr. So that _Nephele_ intergrades completely with _Alope_. But this is not everywhere and always. The metropolis of the typical _Nephele_ is in Canada and northern New England, that of _Alope_ in the States south of New York. There is a line running about with the southern boundary of New York, or it may be, in Pennsylvania, below which _Alope_ holds sole possession, and no tendency is discoverable towards _Nephele_. In the extreme northern area, if there is any departure from typical _Nephele_, it is the exception, not the rule.
Mr. Scudder, in his essay on The Distribution of Insects in New Hampshire, 1874, says of _Alope_: “This insect is tolerably abundant, sometimes very common, in the southern half of New England. The most northern localities … are Norway, Me., Thornton and Shelburne, N. H., and Sudbury, Vt.” Thornton is just south of the White Mountains, and Shelburne is close by the mountains on the north-east. Of _Nephele_ he says: “It is found over the whole northern half of N. E. in great abundance. The only locality in which I have met with it is in Massachusetts, in the elevated region about Williamstown,” &c. This place is in the north-west corner of the State, next the Vermont line, and the elevated region spoken of is a continuation of the Green Mountains. So it appears that _Nephele_ comes down to the Massachusetts line and _Alope_ flies as far as the White Mountains. In the intervening district the intergrades fly just as in New York.