o Vol. 50, pp. 87-92 June 22, 1937 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHI ^g^p® 1 ^^ ^2^1. MO^ PRELIMINARY LIST OF THE BUTTERFLIES OF VIRGINIA. BY AUSTIN H. CLARK and LEILA F. CLARK. The butterflies of Virginia have attracted attention ever since 1587 when John White brought back to England a colored drawing of a female of the common yellow swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), which was published as a wood-cut in 1634. In colonial times and immediately afterwards many specimens were sent to Europe and a number of species were described and recorded from Virginia, especially in the works of Drury (1770-1782), Cramer (1779-1782), Godart (1819), and Bois-duval and LeConte (1829-1837). Since the time of Boisduval and LeConte the published information on Virginian butterflies has been almost wholly in the form of incidental records, mainly by Strecker (1878), William H. Edwards (1868-1887), and Scudder (1889), and brief notes by various authors. In the following list there are included the 133 species and subspecies that we believe have actually been taken in Virginia. We ourselves have taken 126 of these, and we have indubitable records of all the others except Phyciodes gorgone, Hemiargus hanno, Terias jucunda, and Terias delta. These four have not been found in the State within the past one hundred years, but we have no reason to believe that the early records of their occurrence are not correct. In listing the species and subspecies we have used subspecific names when more than one subspecies occurs in the State, or when the subspecies found in the State is not the typical form, as in the case of Polygonia faunus, Nymphalis antiopa, Basilarchia arthemis, Dione vanillae, etc. In other cases the use of subspecific designations seemed superfluous. The distribution, actual or probable, of each species and subspecies within the State is roughly indicated by a reference to the life zone or J— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. 50, 1937. (87)
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