96 Queries and Answers. 



acorn-eating species. We had not facilities for feeding the 

 larvae received into a perfect state ; and as some of the acorns 

 seemed emptied of the kernel, and yet the larvae not fed to 

 the state of changing into pupas, we presume that a stock of 

 acorns is necessary, that when a larva has emptied one it 

 may enter another. — J. D. 



The Mazarine Blue Butterfly. — I wish some correspondent 

 would oblige me with information respecting, and an accurate 

 description of, the azure blue butterfly. Stephens (in Syst. 

 Cat. ii. 23.) and Rennie (in the Conspectus of Butterflies and 

 Moths, &c.,*17.) give Polyommatus A v cis as the mazarine blue, 

 Mrs. Jermyn, in her Butterfly Collector's Fade Mecum, p. 148., 

 gives P. Cymorc : and in Constable's Miscellany, lxxv. 

 p. 164., P. Arkw is given for it. I have by me a few butter- 

 flies which I have this summer captured, and which, as far as 

 I am able to judge, I take to be the mazarine blue. The 

 following is the best description I can give of the fly. Wings, 

 when expanded, lj inch; upper surface blue, of rather a 

 deeper shade than that of P. A'rgus, shading off* into a black 

 band on the outer edge, and terminated with a white fringe ; 

 under side of rather a leaden grey or bluish ash colour, deep- 

 ening towards the scutellar and humeral angles : the superior 

 wing has a lunated black spot in the centre, surrounded by a 

 white atmosphere : between this and the outer margin a bent 

 band of eyelets, with black pupil and white iris. The eyelets 

 are generally seven in number, and differ considerably in size ; 

 but I have a specimen in which the band consists of only 

 four eyelets all of equal size. Inferior wings ; a single eyelet 

 near the base, then two eyelets between it and the outer 

 margin ; underneath these eyelets, and towards the centre of 

 the wing, is a very indistinct lunated spot: between this spot 

 and the outer margin, and between the space occupied by it 

 and the anal angle, is a band of six eyelets, the two nearest 

 the angle being nearly confluent. The whole of the eyelets 

 on both wings consist of a black pupil in a white iris. This 

 butterfly is by no means common in the neighbourhood ; I 

 have never captured it but in one small field of not more than 

 an acre in extent, sporting about the hay, with P. A'rgus, in 

 about the end of June and beginning of July. Is this the 

 mazarine blue, or is it not? If not, what butterfly is it? I 

 have not seen it in cabinets nor amongst the specimens in 

 the possession of dealers. — X. Monmouthshire, August 24. 

 1832. 



