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1964
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Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society
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185
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collected prior to 1961, even though that area was heavily collected for three years before that year. Each year since 1961 estelleae has been getting more common there and now is as dominant as in some of the other locations where it had been collected before. A. rindgei is the least common species in the Bracketville area.
The photographs used in this article were made by Don B. Stallings.
References Bonniwell, J. C, 1931. Notes on Megathymus mariae Barnes & Benjamin Ann. Carnegie
Mus., 20: 264-265. Brown, C. & J. Creelman, 1935. Habits of Megathymus stephensi Skin, and notes
on other Megathymus. Ent. Netus, 46: 175-177. Comstock, J. A., 1957. Notes on the metamorphosis of an Agave boring butterfly
from Baja California, Mexico. Trains. San Diego Soc. Nat. Hist., 12: 263-276.
pi. 22. Freeman, H. A., 1951a. Notes on the Agave feeders of the genus Megathymus. Field &
Lab., 19: 26-32. ..............., 1951b. Ecological and Systematic study of the Hesperioidea of Texas.
So. Methodist Univ. Studies., no. 6: 1-67. ............., 1958. A revision of the genera of the Megathymidae, with the description
of three new genera. Lepid. News, 12: 81-92, 1 pi. .............., 1960. Notes on Agathymus in Texas, and the description of a new species
from Mexico. Journ. Lepid. Soc, 14: 58-62, 1 pi.
.............. 1963. Type localities of the Magathymidae. /. Res. Lepid., 2: 137-141.
Harbison, C. F., 1957. A new species of Megathymus from Baja California, Mexico.
Trans. San Diego Soc. Nat. Hist., 12: 231-262, pis. 18-21. ..............., 1963. A second new species of megathymid from Baja California, Mexico.
Trans. San Diego Soc. Nat. Hist., 13: 61-71, 4 pis. Maeki, Kodo & C. L. Remington, 1960. Studies of the chromosomes of North
American Rhopalocera.. 2. Hesperiidae, Megathymidae, and Pieridae. Journ.
Lepid. Soc, 14: 37-57, 7 pis. Stallings, D. B., & J. R. Turner, 1958. A review of the Megathymidae of Mexico,
with a synopsis of the classification of the family. Lepid. News, 11: 113-137,
8 pis. Stallings, D. B., J. R. Turner, & V. N. Stallings, 1961. A new subspecies of Agathymus
mariae from Mexico. Journ. Lepid. Soc, 15: 19-22, 1 pi.
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DISTRIBUTION OF PLEBEIUS SAEPIOLUS, LYCAENA
MARIPOSA, AND HESPERIA COMMA ON
VANCOUVER ISLAND
by Richard Guppy
Wellington, British Columbia
My "Distribution of Butterflies on Vancouver Island/' appeared in 1956 in "The Lepidopterist's News" (Vol. 10: 169). The purpose of the present paper is to record some additional information concerning three of the species which were given special mention in the above article.
Concerning Plebeius saepiolus insulanus Blackmore, I wrote, 'The V. I. population, so far as is known, is confined to Mt. Malahat". This information I received in conversation with Mr. Llewellyn-Jones, though
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186
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Guppy: Vancouver distributions
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Vol.18: no.3
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in his book "An Annotated Check List of the Macrolepidoptera of British Columbia", he gives southern V. I., without any precise localities. Actually he directed me to a small bit of territory between the road and railway track near Shawnigan Lake. I found this, however, such a disappointing place, that for several years I held to the view that Mr. Jones had just happened to come across the butterflies somewhere around there. About 1957 the entire railway right-of-way was saturated with weed killer, and the place became barren. In ensuring years I picked up the odd specimen of P. saepiolus further up the mountain, away from the railway, but by 1962 they were becoming fairly common beside the track as, I now realize, they had probably been when Jones collected there.
In 1963 I discovered another spot for P. saepiolus, about 20 miles north of Shawnigan Lake. I have used the name Mt. Sicker as a locality for these specimens, since it is the nearest point marked on maps. A highway has been cut through the steep lower part of this mountain, and the rocky slope goes up from the road in a series of benches. On the first of these, only a few minutes climb from the road, the P. saepiolus flies. As at Shawnigan Lake the main colony is confined to less than a quarter of an acre.
Both these saepiolus spots are old clearings that have grown up with grass, introduced European weeds, and tall bracken. Nothing like them could have existed when the land was in its natural state, since anywhere that the soil is rich and deep enough to support the above mentioned type of vegetation, forest would have taken over. Sometimes one comes across a kind of open forest of jack pines, with scrubby undergrowth consisting partly of lupins; this is the favorite haunt of other Plebeiinae: Plebeius icarioides blackmorei B. & McD. P. melissa (Edw.) and Glaucopsyche lygdamus Columbia Skinner. Another type of hillside terrain, where there is almost no soil, is clothed with mosses, plants mostly of the lily family, and some wiry native grasses. All this vegetation can survive almost total dessication in summer; but neither of these habitats seems to support P. saepiolus, nor has I found it on roadsides or farm land. Most likely the nucleus from which my two colonies originated has not yet been spotted by a lepidopterist. It must be a type of country rather out of the ordinary for Vancouver Island.
In the case of Lycaena mariposa Reakirt I have to report a most extraordinary change in the situation as described in my earlier paper. At that time I wrote that the species occured on Mt. Arrowsmith, the Forbidden Plateau, and in one locality close to the road near Alberni. I did not notice, when putting down that information, that Jones had
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1964
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Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society
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187
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no record of Mt. Arrowsmith as a locality for L. mariposa. I had, however, collected a single specimen there myself, in 1951. As for Jones' "summit of highway" as he called it, (this being the highest point the road reaches on the way to Alberni) although he took quite a series for his collection there, I have never found more than one or two L. mariposa there in any season since.
I believe that one of the reasons why I, and very possibly other collectors, have considered L. mariposa to be a scarce butterfly, lies in its very late season of flight. Below 3000' it is seldom on the move before July 15th; above the timber line on Mt. Arrowsmith, between 5000' and 6000', it is not likely to be seen before August 20th. It is natural for collectors to get up into the mountains about as soon as the snow is gone, since the great bulk of the insects start to move then. During recent years I have taken to making a final visit to Arrowsmith very late in August, and on these trips I have found plenty of L. mariposa. The species has also turned out to be quite common on Mt. Benson, at about 3000'. I cannot say whether the mariposa were there all along, and I just happened to miss them; or whether, as seems quite possible, they were attracted by the vegetation that grew following the bad forest fire of 1951. The theory that I was usually too early on Mt. Benson is supported by my discovery of another late flyer, Plebeius melissa, there at the same time.
The whole question of host plants and habitat of L. mariposa is still a complete mystery to me. On Mt. Arrowsmith the species prefers swampy places where cotton grass grows. However, on Mt. Benson it flies in typical dry Plebeiinae territory, which has come back pretty much as before the fire, except that the jack pines are still tiny, growing only a few inches a year at that altitude. A great deal of searching for Polygonaceous plants has turned up one species, a tiny knotweed, Polygonum minimum, Wats. But these plants are so scarce and scattered that it is impossible to suppose that they support the larvae of all the L. mariposa present. A few females which I caged deposited a total of one egg on P. minimum, none on anything else that I tried, including common Polygonaceous weeds. The project is much held up by scarcity of females, nearly all the specimens which I collect are males. Since L. mariposa overwinters in the egg stage, it is to be expected that the eggs would be dropped at random. It may be that the presence of a few Polygonum plants stimulates oviposition, though the larvae manage to get along on something else when driven to it. The late brood of Lycaena helloides (Bdv.) also drops ova destined for spring' hatching, and this species, late or early brood, readily oviposits on any Polygonacae.
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188
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Guppy: Vancouver distributions
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Vol.18: no.3
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In my earlier paper, the added note on Hesperia comma (L.)1, that "by 1956 it had not spread at all" (from Oak Bay Park) was added to the proof. This has continued to be the picture, H. comma is common in the park at Oak Bay, but gets no further. Most likely it has been there all along. Mr. Jones never managed to collect this species. After he became too ill to collect any more, he told me that George Hardy had given him a few specimens from Victoria. It may seem strange that he overlooked a wanted species in such a handy place as Oak Bay Park, even more so that Mr. Hardy, who lives even closer to the spot, and does considerable Lep. collecting, did not find them before 1952. The park is a rather dry, uninteresting place in late summer, and it still seems possible that no collector bothered to try it at the right season. At any rate, that theory seems to me more plausible than supposing that H. comma suddenly established itself in the park, and then stayed right there.
Hesperia comma is also plentiful on Mt. Benson, it was there both before and after the fire. Commencing in 1959, the species spread down the mountain and into surrounding territory; until I began finding some individuals at Wellington. After a few years it receded up to the summit again. In the same way, during 1952 the Oak Bay colony had moved along the Saanich Peninsula, as far as the north end of Elk Lake, but they held to this extended territory for only a year or two.
In the "Beport of the Provincial Museum" for 1954 a sight record of H. comma on the Forbidden Plateau is listed. An earlier issue of the same publication (1943) gives a complete account of Forbidden Plateau fauna as then known, and H. comma is not mentioned. I have three similar, single records (all specimens collected). O'ne for Mt. Arrow-smith, one for Cameron Lake (where the Mt. Arrowsmith trail starts at about 600 ft.), and one for the "Highway Summit" spot, where Jones got his Lycaena mariposa. The latter specimen was doubly peculiar, in that it was flying along with "second early" butterflies, such as Boloria epithore Edw. and Parnassius clodius Men. Mt. Benson and Victoria are still the only places where I can regularly take H. comma.
lAccording to the recent treatment by MacNeill (1964, U. Calif. Ptibl Ent., 35) this population is referable to Hesperia harpalus oregonia (Edw.).
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