8 I H AUSTELL ATA. LK PI DO I'TER A. 



in a lateral point : ei/es pubescent or naked : legs alike in both sexes : tarsi 

 furnished with very minute, simple claws, projecting beyond the foot-cushions, 

 which are very short, or obsolete : tvhigs entire ; the posterior scarcely, or not 

 at all, denticulated at the anal angle. 



There is considerable diversity of habit and form * amongst the 

 species of this beautiful genus. Nevertheless most of the species 

 may be known from the Lyciense by the rich blue tints with which 

 their wings are adorned, and all by the compressed knob of the an- 

 tennae, the obsoletely denticulated posterior Mangs, and the minute 

 pulvilli. Many of the species frequent chalky districts; others, how- 

 ever, affect fields, pastures, and commons, where the grass is high. 

 The larvje, as far as known, subsist upon herbs and grasses. 



Were the species more numerous, it would be advantageous to 

 divide the genus into sections, but from their paucity in Britain I 

 shall merely observe, that Po. Argiolus differs from its indigenous 

 congeners by the form and texture of its wings; that Po. Alsus, 

 Agestis, and Artaxerxes are characterized by an uniformity of co- 

 louring in both sexes, while the remaining species are distinguished 

 (in general) by the males being blue above and the females brown, 

 excepting Po. Arion and Alcon, in which the latter sex is known 

 by a predominance of brown above, and by having the disc consi- 

 derably spotted with dusky or black ; and that the five first species 

 are destitute of a marginal fascia beneath, which is, however, rudi- 



* With reference to the observations on this subject at the end of the genus 

 Hipparchia, it is necessary to apprize the reader that they originated from those 

 contained in the Philosophical Magazine, (vol. Ixiii. p. 58 and 219, and vol. 

 Ixvii. p. 60) ; in Mr. Mac Leay's invaluable Horte Entomologicse, (p. 85, &c.) ; in 

 the fourth vol. of the interesting Introduction to Entomology, (p. 547, &c.) ; and 

 in the latter pages of Mr. Bicheno's Address to the Zoological Club of the Lin- 

 mean Society ; in each of which the investigation of groups, or forms, is more or 

 less insisted on, almost to the total exclusion of that of species ; and in some 

 remarks upon Professor Kidd's anatomy of the mole-cricket (Gryllotalpa vul- 

 garis) in the Panoramic Miscellany for February, 1826, such and similar invesr- 

 tigations are considered ridiculous, puerile, and contemptible ! I, therefore, as 

 a student of species, warmly advocated the cause, which I have perhaps too 

 ardently espoused ; and in order to prevent my remarks being misconstrued I 

 here introduce the chief passages which induced me to pen them, which it is 

 perhaps needless to observe were adduced in favour of the investigation o^ things 

 and not of names, the latter being subsidiary, though indispensable, to the 

 former. 



