FAMILY GOSSAMER-WINGED BUTTERFLIES 125 



there are two kinds of females, one almost uniformly dark 

 on the upper surface as described above, the other more 

 nearly resembling the male, being blue with broad black 

 margins. 



29. Genus Cyaniris. 

 CYANIRIS PSEUDARGIOLUS— THE SPRING AZURE. 



(Lycaena pseudargiolus, Cupido pseudargiolus, Polyommatus lucia, 

 Lycaena violacea, Lycaena neglecta.) 



Butterfly. — Hind wings with do tails. Upper surface of wings 

 either pale violet with a slight brownish rim or slate-brown 

 (male), or else pallid, more or less tinged with violet, with a very 

 broad brown edging to the fore wings both on costal and outer 

 margins (female). Under surface pale ash-gray with brown 

 markings very variable in extent, especially upon the hind wing, 

 the markings of the disk here varying from a thread terminating 

 the cell and an extramesial series of delicate dots, to a large ir- 

 regularly-margined blotch covering most of the surface, and only 

 separated from similarly heavy marginal markings by a slender, 

 dentate, extramesial, pallid band. Expanse 1-1^ inches. 



Caterpillar. — Onisciform. Head minute, dark brown. Body 

 naked, pilose, white, with a dusky dorsal line and marked with 

 greenish on the sides ; last segment comparatively slender and but 

 moderately depressed. Length | inch. 



Chrysalis.— Body less than three times as long as broad, light 

 brownish yellow, with a faint dusky dorsal line, and more or less 

 marked minutely with blackish. Length nearly ^ inch. 



This highly variable butterfly is found over an immense 

 territory (much more than our district), and the distribution 

 and times of appearance of the different forms which it 

 assumes are mentioned in the Introduction (see p. 18). It 

 occurs in and at the borders of open deciduous woods or by 

 roadsides through them, often settling (with much waver- 

 ing) in crowds about damp spots. The eggs, which closely 

 resemble those of Everes comyntas in color and markings, 

 but are not so flat, are laid singly on the buds or the calyx 

 of the flowers of the plant on which the caterpillar is to 



