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Volume 28, Number 3
223
to be (a) sex, females are typically significantly larger than males; and (b) winter, November and February specimens are characteristically smaller than average. The size range of the Mississippi series is 20 to 38 mm (1 to 1.9). The range of the series of five August specimens reported by Rahn (1972) was 20 to 32 mm (1 to 1.6). The size range for six Mississippi August specimens was 28 to 37 mm (1 to 1.3).
Literature Cited
Harris, L., Jr. 1972. Butterflies of Georgia. Univ. Okla. Press, Norman, p. 280. Mather, B. & K. Mather. 1958. The butterflies of Mississippi. Tulane Stud. Zool.
6: 63-109. Rahn, R. A. 1972. A dwarf form of Euptoieta claudia (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae).
Great Lakes Entomol. 5: 101. (Reproduced, with minor editorial changes
and reversal of the figure, in J. Res. Lepid. 11: 174.)
PHYCIODES MYLITTA (NYMPHALIDAE) ON VANCOUVER ISLAND
In Jones' "Annotated Check List of the Macrolepidoptera of British Columbia" (1951), Phyciocles mylitta is listed as occurring in a number of localities in mainland British Columbia including the coast adjacent to Vancouver Island, but there were at the time no records for Vancouver Island. I have myself collected intensively over a large part of Vancouver Island during the past 30 years, without encountering P. mylitta before 1972.
In August of that year P. mylitta turned up in Bright Angel Park near Duncan. The first specimens were handed to me by a friend, Mrs. Betty McKinnon, who said that they were then quite plentiful in the park area. Looking at the butterflies through the semi-transparent envelopes in which they were packed, I took them for Phyciodes campestris Behr. which I have often taken on Vancouver Island, though I was surprised at the late date, 10 August. I did not examine them more closely until late the following winter, when I at once saw that they were not P. campestris. Later, I sent some examples to Dr. dos Passos, who pronounced them typical Phyciodes mylitta.
The following April, P. mylitta showed up in a number of localities from Victoria on the southern tip of the Island north about 40 miles to Chemainus. Either the species had maintained itself in such small numbers as to escape detection, and then suddenly exploded; or it had gained access to Vancouver Island two years ago and built up a large population with amazing speed. In some respects the case resembles that of Coenonympha tullia, which after being confined to the immediate vicinity of Victoria until about 1965, suddenly started to spread northward, again coming to a stop near Chemainus. The latter species, however, was always very common near Victoria.
I cannot account for the flight season for P. mylitta as given by Jones, he states merely "June." Last year I observed a spring brood starting to fly very early in April, followed by a summer flight in July and August. P. campestris here is single brooded, flying in June and early July.
Richard Guppy, Thetis Island, British Columbia, Canada.