\ 



NOMIADES COUPERI— The sUver blue.* 



Glaucopsyche couperi Grote, Bull. Buft', Lycaena lijgdamns Doubl., List. Lep. 



80C. nat. sc, i : 185 (1S73) ;— Scudd., ibid., i: Brit, mils., ii : 45 (1847). 



198(1874). Lycaena afra Edw.. Can. ent., xv: 211 



Nomiades couperi Scudd., Can. ent.. viii; (ISS-S). ^ 



22-23 (187()). Figured by Glover, 111. N. A. Lep., pi. H, 



Lycaena pembina Edw., Syn. N. Amer. fig. 6, ined. 

 butt., 37 (1871);— Streck., Lep., 69, 84, pi. 10, 



figs. 10. 10, 11 (1874). (Not Lye. perabina Edw., Proc. Acad. nat. 



Glaucopsyche pembina Scudd., Syst. rev. sc. Phil. (lSfr2) ; nor Lye. lygdamus Doubl., 



Am. butt., 34 (1872). Entom. (1841).) 



A white-faced hornet hurtles by, 

 Lags a turquoise buttertiy, — 

 One intent on prey and treasure, 

 One afloat on tides of pleasure! 

 BIaurice Tiiompsox.— /» Haunts of Bass and Bream. 



On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee. 



Shakespeare. — Midsummer-Nig /it's Dream 



Imago (14 : 8, 10). Head covered with black scales, a narrow circlet of white sur- 

 rounding the eyes with the exception of the antcunal spaces and connected across the 

 lower part of the front by a white band ; middle of thfs front and summit with a 

 longitudinal row of very long, rather profuse, whitish hairs and with a few similar 

 ones at the back of the sides arching forwards. Palpi, excepting apical joint, white 

 at the sides, black above, with a long fringe of mingled black and white hair-like 

 scales, the black preponderating apically. the white toward the base ; apical joint 

 blackish, white along the inside and at the tip: antennae blackish brown, the joints 



•This name was given independently to this butterfly by Gosse and myself. 



\ 



\ 



LYCAENINAE: NOMIADICS ('< (I'l'KIlI. 953 V 



\Ve have presented hut few examples, but these will be sufficient to 

 show in how many ways butterHies may vary and how these variations 

 may be appropriated for the development of species, the distinctions be- 

 coming gradually intensified into complete and permanent diversity. 

 This is natural selection. And by the avidity with which natiu-al selection 

 seizes every possible variation to produce new forms, one would fairly 

 suppose that its constant action would lead to endless variety. Now if on 

 this theory we should maintain that all existing forms of animal life have 

 sprung from a few original sources, then we maj- fairly conclude that nat- 

 ural selection, by itself alone, would also lead to inextricable confusion, 

 through which it would be impossible now to trace one thread of harmony. 

 That it is not so, that the groupings and relations of structure among 

 animals are clear to the human mind, that they present an orderly arrange- 

 ment and a harmonious intercombination which appeals to his intellectual 

 powers, is sufficient proof that natural selection, with all its wondrous and 

 pervading power, acts under law, a law of evolution, which is no slave to 

 the forces of nature, but brings them into subservience to its ends, a law 

 which is working out the plans of a Supreme Intelligence, by ways which 

 man may apprehend, but has not yet comprehended. 



\, 



