IGl) [July, 



Male. Upperside, a clear bright violet blue, rather more violet than in the 

 violet fornls of icarus. Aboiit No. 506 of Klinksiecfs " Code of Coloui-s," but 

 with a difficulty of comparison due to the metallic brilliancy of the butterfly. 

 The fringe is divided into an inner and outer line : the outer light grey (whitish 

 scales tipped with blackish), the inner nearly black ; without a lens this appears 

 to be a black margin of the wing itself. In one specimen there are no other 

 markings ; in another, there are small black marks on the hind wings in the 

 spaces close to the hind margin ; they are six in number ; this is a variation 

 well known in icarus, thetys, and other blues. The veins do not stand out as 

 paler, really more shining lines, as they commonly do in icarus. 



S ■ Underside : the underside very closely resembles that of medon, and it 

 is cvu'ious that the upperside, especially as regards the fringes, is not vmlike 

 sarta, another Aricia. It also resembles hunza and icarus, both of which are 

 Polyonimatus. 



In comparing it with medon, the upper wing presents no points of differ- 

 ence. The hind wing, however, has the spot in space 6-7 in normal sequence, 

 not advanced basally (as in medon, close to that in space 7-8). The basal 

 margins of the orange spots, which are as bright as and otherwise very similar 

 to those of medo7i, with their white and black marginal lines, are more rounded, 

 not with a basally pointing angle as in viedon. The white dash in space 3-4 is 

 close to 4, and though it is continuous with the white circles roimd the spots 

 in 3-4, 4-5, it is smaller and shorter than in medon, and can barely be said to 

 enter space 4-5, and is quite separate from the orange marginal spot in 4-5. 



Ill general appearance and markings the species is nearest to 

 actinides, which I have Httle doubt is a closely allied species, although 

 I have been unable to obtain a ^ oi that species for dissection. It 

 differs in the orange marginal markings in the male, being very weak 

 in actinides, in the white dash on the hind wing being much more 

 extensive, and especially in the row of discal spots beneath the fore 

 wing, being quite free of the marginal spots, and in curving very 

 strongly basally towards the costal extremity. This latter is a specific 

 character that cannot be disregarded. 



The female upperside is of a brown-black, with a faint trace of discal spots 

 that one rather imagines than sees, and a marginal row of orange spots not 

 unlike those of g medon when fully expressed ; there are five on the upper 

 wing, tlie most costal very small. On the hind wing are also five, their 

 marginal ends are hollowed, and a wliitish-bluish curved line facing the hollow 

 encloses a black spot (of the general wing colour). The underside differs from 

 that of the male in being darker (the two corresponding very nearly to the 

 lightest and darkest undersides of medon varieties), and in the orange spots 

 being more pronounced. 



In comparison with actinides (I have only one specimen of each 

 before me) the female has the orange marks above smaller, very 



