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1969
Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society
33
NOTES ON NEWFOUNDLAND BUTTERFLIES
Richard Holland
308 Morningside SE, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Introduction
The island of Newfoundland is roughly triangular, having an east-west extent of about 300 miles and a north-south extent of about 270 miles (Fig. 1). It is located in the mouth of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and is separated by about fifteen miles from the Labrador coast to the northeast. To the southeast is Cape Breton Island of Nova Scotia at a distance of eighty miles. Excluding Greenland, Newfoundland is the easternmost part of North America. All Newfoundland localities mentioned in this article may be found on the map of Fig. 1.
The first records of Newfoundland Lepidoptera are due to Gosse (1883), who collected 13 species on Carbonear Is., about thirty miles west of St. John's, between 1832 and 1835. His data, however, remained unpublished until 1883, when it came into the possession of W. H. Edwards (1883). It was not until 1934 that extensively publicized collecting again took place on Newfoundland. At that time Mclsaac found 21 species near Doyles Station in the extreme southwestern part of the island. This was reported by dos Passos (1935), who also described four new subspecies from the Mclsaac material. By far the most ambitious research to date on Newfoundland Lepidoptera was carried out in 1949 by Krogerus, taking part in a Finnish-Swedish expedition. Krogerus travelled the island extensively, and recorded a total of 29 species of Rhopalocera and several hundred species of Heterocera (Krogerus, 1954).
Environmental Orservations
For about two weeks at the end of July, 1965, I collected along the west coast of Newfoundland. The entire northeastern U. S. was then three years into a severe drought; this drought was manifested in Newfoundland only by clear skies a phenomenally high fraction of the time (50%). Biting insects were so severe that highway construction had been stopped—this in spite of the fact that weather conditions only permit road building about three months out of the year. Otherwise 1965 was an apparently normal summer.
Western Newfoundland consists of a low coastal plain up to twenty miles wide, which rises abruptly about 15007 into the plateau-like Long Range.
Figure 2, taken on Table Mt, showing the coastal plain on the left and the plateau on the right, is quite characteristic of the abrupt transi-
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Holland: Newfoundland butterflies Vol. 23, no. 1
tion between the two. The Long Range plateau is remarkably level, and extends many miles inland; it is cut by U-shaped glacial valleys such as the one shown in Fig. 3, at least in the South. In the North the plateau apparently has not been glaciated (Brown, 1955). Figure 3 was taken just south of Table Mt. on Aug. 1 looking east into a glacial valley. The snow patches are about 1000' above sea level, and are on the southern exposure only. (Perhaps in winter the north wind disburdens itself as it begins to dip into the valley just as it does after dipping on the leeward side of a snowfence, and piles snow there to an enormous depth.) In most cases the coastal plain is forested with black spruce, although certain exposed areas very close to the sea, such as Port aux Basques, have only tundra-like vegetation including Arctic grasses, pitcher plant, Labrador tea, and dwarf birch. The Long Range plateau is apparently
Fig. 1. Newfoundland and adjacent land masses. All localities mentioned in the text are indicated here.
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Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society
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Fig. 2 (upper). The edge of the Long Range plateau. On the far left is the Gulf of St. Lawrence, next is the coastal plain, and finally the abrupt 1500' transition to the plateau. The very edge of the plateau is a typical habitat for Papilio hrevicauda Saunders and Agriades aquilo (Bdv.). Fig. 3 (lower). Looking east into a U-shaped glacial valley carved from the plateau. Note the snow patches on the southern exposure.
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Holland: Newfoundland butterflies Vol. 23, no. 1
completely tundra and barrens; it is exceedingly inaccessible in most places. Bogs, some miles in extent, occur both on the coastal plain and on the plateau. These bogs, in addition to the plants representative of more southern bogs, are characterized by a small edible berry (probably Rubus chamaemorus L.), superficially resembling a strawberry.
An all-weather road, which is paved south of Deer Lake, follows the west coast. Just north of Deer Lake it rises to a height of 1500'; otherwise it follows the coastal plain. All of the records reported here are from walking distance of this road. No previously unreported Rhopaloc-era were taken, although some of my captures have been found only once before, and others represent significant range extensions.
Annotated List of Species1 Satyridae
1. Coenonympha inornata macisaaci dos Passos (Figured by Brown (1955)). Port aux Basques (STL), 22-VII-65; Table Mt. (ATL), 23-VII-65; Middle Brook (F), 24-VII-65; George's Lake (B), 24-VII-65; Hawkes Bay (F), 29-VII-65; Watson's River (STL), 26-VII-65; Loon Motel (F), 26-VII-65. This species is found in all environments, including above and seaward of tree line. Brown (1955) knew of no records of it from near or beyond tree line. For this and other reasons, he concluded that macisaaci could not have survived the last ice age on Newfoundland.2 While I would not attempt to pass final judgment on this conclusion, it does appear that macisaaci can tolerate a colder environment than has sometimes been assumed.
Nymphalidae
2. Speyeria atlantis canadensis (dos Passos). Hawkes Bay (F), 29-VII-65. This species was common at one locality (25 S S, no 2 2 ), and not seen elsewhere. It is compared in Fig. 4 with the mainland race, typical atlantis (Edw.). The VHW light submarginal band may be seen to be considerably reduced in canadensis. Grey (1966) has indicated that these Hawkes Bay specimens are smaller and more red than the type series of canadensis from Doyles Station, Newfoundland.
3. Boloria selene terraenovae (Holland) (Figured by Holland (1931), Plate LV, Fig. 13). Hawkes Bay (B & F), 29-VII-65; Loon Motel
1 B = bog; F = forest (generally black spruce); ATL = above tree line; STL = seaward of tree line.
2 In a private communication, L. P. Grey of Lincoln, Maine, has made the imaginative suggestion that macisaaci may have passed the most recent ice age on the Grand Bank.
1969 Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 37
(F), 26-VII-65. This race may be nearly always distinguished from the mainland race, atrocostalis (Huard), by the obsolescence of the first DHW submarginal dot (cell RS).
4. Vanessa atalanta (L.). Hawkes Bay (F), 26-VII-65.
5. Vanessa cardui (L.). Hawkes Bay (F), 26-VII-65.
Fig. 4. Speyeria atlantis. Left side shows S. a. canadensis (dos Passos) from Hawkes Bay, Nfld. Right side shows typical atlantis (Edw.) from San Quentin, N.B. Note the reduced submarginal light band on the hind wing of canadensis. (All specimens are males.)
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Holland: Newfoundland butterflies Vol. 23, no. 1
Xjchlh
Fig. 5. Lycaena epixanthe. Top pair are L. e. phaedrus (Hall) from Hawkes Bay, Nfld.; middle pair are phaedrus from Cape Breton Highlands, N.S.; bottom pair are typical epixanthe (Bdv. & LeC.) from Lincoln, Me. All specimens are males. Note that there is little difference between the Nova Scotia and Newfoundland specimens, but that the Maine specimens are definitely more heavily marked.
Lycaenidae
6. Agriades aquilo (Boisduval). Port aux Basques (STL), 22-VII-65; Table Mt. (ATL), 23-VII-65. This little butterfly fairly swarmed at the tops of small rises. It is apparently associated with much harsher environments than its Rocky Mountain and Sierra Nevada relatives, rustica (Edw.) and podarce (Felder & Felder).
7. Plebejus argyrognomon aster (Edw.) (Figured by Klots (1951),
Plate 19, Fig. 7). Georges Lake (B), 24-VII-65;, Hawkes Bay (B), 29-VII-65. This insect was seen by the hundreds at Hawkes Bay.
8. Lycaena epixanthe phaedrus (Hall). Hawkes Bay (B), 29-VII-65. The Newfoundland form of this subspecies is illustrated in Fig. 5, and is compared with phaedrus from nearby Cape Breton Is., N.S.,
Fig. 6. Colias from Table Mt., Nfld. Top left, yellow female interior laurentina (Scudder); top right, yellow female pelidne lahradorensis Scudder; second row and third row left, white pelidne females; third row right, pelidne male. (Even though the pelidne females are quite variable, none have the rounded forewing characteristic of interior.); lower: Colias pelidne male with submarginal spots normally diagnostic of philodice.
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Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society
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3 cm___H
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Holland: Newfoundland butterflies Vol. 23, no. 1
and with typical epixanthe (Boisduval & Le Conte) from Maine. My specimens bear no resemblance to the subspecies amicetus (Scudder),3 supposedly described from Newfoundland (figured by Holland (1931), Plate LXIV, Figs. 41 & 42), in that my specimens have the VHW grey (not white) and not immaculate.
Pieridae
9. Pieris rapae (L.). Hawkes Bay (F), 29-VII-65;, Loon Motel (F), 26-VII-65. These records apparently represent northward extensions of the known eastern distribution of this pest.
10. Colias interior laurentina (Scudder). Table Mt. (ATL), l-VIII-65. My single Newfoundland specimen is shown in Fig. 6, and is distinguished from Maine material by a more orange discal spot on the DHW and more green suffusion on the VHW.
11. Colias pelidne labradorensis Scudder. Table Mt. (ATL), 23-VII-65 and l-VIII-65; Port aux Basques (STL), 22-VII 65. My specimens are very distinct from the labradorensis example illustrated by Holland (1931). Table Mountain where pelidne Boisduval & Le Conte was rather common, is the only place I know of at which it is sym-patric with interior Scudder. Hovanitz (1950a) has suggested that there is a "continuous morphological intergradiation" between pelidne and interior, so that the two are conspecific. My Table Mountain pelidne specimens, some of which are shown in Fig. 6, were quite variable, but do not seem to intergrade with the illustrated Table Mountain interior specimen, either in wing shape or color or pattern. White females outnumbered yellow 11:1 among my pelidne specimens. This figure is almost exactly the reverse of that cited by Hovanitz (1950b) (3: 32) for New foundland in what he calls the "interior-pelidne complex." The flight period of interior is apparently later than that of pelidne on Table Mountain. On Aug. 1 when the interior was taken in fresh condition, pelidne was only about one fifth as common as it had been on July 22. The pelidne which were seen on Aug. 1 were usually, but not always, worn. A single pelidne male, taken on Table Mountain, 23-July-65, possesses the VHW submarginal spots normally distinctive of philodice Godart. This specimen, which is illustrated at the bottom of Figure 6, has been examined by Dr. A. B. Klots of the American Museum of Natural History. Dr. Klots, long a student of this genus, expressed his judgment that it "could be a hybrid with philodice, or merely an expression of some ancestoral gene."
3 In a private communication, F. M. Brown of Colorado Springs, Colorado, has indicated that the name amicetus Scudder is a synonym of epixanthe. The status of this name is apparently quite complex.
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Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society
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Papilionidae
12. Papilio brevicauda Saunders. Table Mt. (ATL), 23-VII-65.
Hesperiidae
13. Hesperia comma horealis Lindsey. Loon Motel (F), 26-VII-65; 10 mi. W. of Loon Motel (F), 26-VII-65. This species has previously been recorded from Newfoundland only by Krogerus (1954), also from the extreme northwest tip of the island. As Fig. 7 shows, my specimens bear a remarkable resemblance to material from Mt. Albert on the Gaspe Peninsula.
Fig. 7. Hesperia comma horealis Lindsey. Top, uppersides; bottom, undersides. Both frames have males above and females below; Mt. Albert, Que., to the left and Loon Motel, Nfld., to the right. Note the extreme similarity of the females.
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The following province records for moths were taken at light around habitations:
Noctuidae
14. Ceramica picta (Harris). Loon Motel (F), 27-VII-65.
Lip arid ae
15. Olene vagans Barnes & McDunnough. Portland Creek (F), 30-VII-65.
Acknowledgments I would like to thank F. M. Brown for critically reading the manuscript and L. P. Grey for numerous interesting discussions and comments. The Colias identifications have been verified by Dr. A. B. Klots, and the moths have been identified by Dr. A. E. Brower.
Literature Cited
Brown, F. M., 1955. Studies on Nearctic Coenonympha tullia. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 105: 359-410.
dos Passos, C. F., 1935. Some butterflies of southern Newfoundland with descriptions of new subspecies. Canad. Ent., 67: 82-88.
Edwards, W. H., 1883. Newfoundland butterflies, collected by P. H. Gosse. Canad. Ent., 15: 43-44.
Grey, L. P., 1966. North American annual summary for 1965. News of the Lepid. Soc, 15 April 1966: 10.
Gosse, P. H., 1883. Notes on butterflies obtained at Carbonear Island, Newfoundland, 1832-1835. Canad. Ent., 15: 44-51.
Holland, W. J., 1931. The Butterfly Book (revised edition). Doubleday & Co., Garden City, N. Y. 424 pp.
Hovanitz, W., 1950a. The biology of Colias butterflies. I. The distribution of the North American species. Wasmann J. Biol., 8: 49—75. 1950b. The biology of Colias butterflies. II. Parallel geographical variation of dimorphic color phases in North American species. Wasmann J. Biol., 8: 197-219.
Klots, A. B., 1951. A Field Guide to the Butterflies. Houghton-Mifflin Co., Boston, Mass. 349 pp.
Krogerus, H., 1954. Investigations of the Lepidoptera of Newfoundland, I. Macro-lepidoptera. Acta Zool. Fennica, 82: 2-80.