WHAT IS POLYOMMATUS ARIANA, MOORE ? 87 



margin whitish ; cilia broad, white. Underside purple-grej^, suffused 

 with metallic greenish-grey at base of hindwing ; forewing with a 

 small spot within discoidal cell, another closing the cell, a submarginal 

 discal series of six spots (the posterior, sixth, geminated), black, each 

 encircled with white ; a marginal series of ill-defined double whitish 

 spots, the posterior having slight dark centres ; hindwing with two 

 basal and a submarginal discal series of seven black spots encircled with 

 white; a marginal row of whitish spots, each centred exteriorly with a 

 dark and interiorly Avith a reddish spot ; a triangular spot in centre of 

 wing, and a streak from middle of exterior margin, whitish. Body 

 white. Female. — Duller lilac-blue, with the exterior margin of both 

 wings brownish. Underside as in male. Expanse of S' If in., $ 1^ 

 in. Hab. Kunawur. 



An abundant species, frequenting pasture- and meadow-land in the 

 summer months, at altitudes of 8, 000ft. -10,000ft., alighting on the 

 gentians which stud the green turf." 



In the British Museum collection is the type <? ariana, Moore, 

 labelled " Kunawur, Lang," and bearing a second label in Moore's 

 writing, " Ariana, Moore, 3 type," but the connection with the 

 original figure (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1865, pi. xxxi., tig. 2) is not obvious. 

 It is considerably smaller than the figure, of a less purple-blue, with a 

 far less conspicuous black outer marginal line, and distinct indications 

 of black interneural marginal spots on the hindwing, of which the 

 figure shows no trace ; the underside is far lighter, being of a pale 

 brown-grey, whilst that of the figure is dark grey without a touch of 

 brown, and with far less metallic suffusion at the base of the hind- 

 wing than the specimen exhibits. The spotting of the two has a 

 widely different appearance, and neither corresponds with the original 

 description. Each has a series of six submarginal spots on the fore- 

 wing, the last being double, and of seven on the hindwing, those on 

 the forewmg agreeing fairly in figure and specimen, except that the 

 dark ground colour of the former makes the encircling white much 

 more conspicuous, whilst those on the hindwing are large and very 

 conspicuous in the figure, smallish and far less conspicuous in the 

 specimen ; the marginal spotting of the figure consists of a single (not 

 double) row of conspicuous white blotches, the three lowest, however, 

 having a very narrow white line cut off from the spot by a narrow 

 line of the ground colour, the lowest of these dark lines being nearly 

 straight, the next more arched, and the third V-shaped ; the margin of 

 the hindwing is spotted as in the description, except that the spots in 

 the figure are conspicuously white and have not the faintest indication 

 of reddish. The marginal spots of the specimen are obsolescent, and 

 consist on the forewing of a faint single row of pale spots with centres 

 slightly darker than the ground colour, and on the hindwing of an 

 equally obsolescent border of pale spots with darker centres, the four 

 lowest of which show pale yellowish chevrons above the dark dots. 

 The figure shows nothing of the " small spot within discoidal cell," 

 and has no basal spots on the forewing and two (as in the description) 

 on the hindwing ; the type-specimen has two basal spots on each 

 forewing, three on the right and four on the left hindwing. The 

 white triangle {i.e., discoidal spot) and streak are, of course, much 

 more conspicuous in the figure than in the specimen. The shape of 

 the two is also different, the figure showing a much squarer insect 



