PLEEEIUS. 87 



the Rev. O. Pickard Cambridge, on August i8th and 20th, 

 1885, flying over a grassy place on Bloxworth Heath, Dorset.* 

 Two or three other captures of the Butterfly at Bournemouth, 

 Blackpool, &c., have also been recorded. 



Mr. Pickard Cambridge has kindly permitted me to pul)lish 

 an extract from a letter received from him, dated June 3, 1895 

 " We have never again met with L. argiades. I hardly now 

 think it can be indigenous. Those we found were probably 

 from a brood produced by an accidental early-summer immi- 

 gration of a few of the first Continental brood. If you re- 

 member, it was also taken at Bournemouth, fourteen miles 

 distant, within two days of our takinj it here. Very likely it 

 might have been found at many other places along the south 

 coast that year if collectors had had their eyes open for it; and 

 probably it will turn up again at some future season in the 

 same way " In which case, I may add, it may succeed, sooner 

 or later, in establishing itself. 



This species varies much in size, the first brood (var. poly- 

 spci'chon) being much smaller than the others. The tails are 

 very slender, and are sometimes obsolete in small specimens. 

 The larger specimens might easily be passed over on the 

 wing as Plebeius argiis, or Polyommatus icarus^ and the smaller 

 ones as Zizera viininia. 



GENUS PLEBEIUS. 

 Plebeius^ Linnceus, Syst. Nat. ed x p. 483(1758); Cuvier. 



Tabl. Elem. d'Hist. Nat. p. 591 (1799). 

 Riisticus^ Hiibner, Tentamen, p. i (18 10?). 

 Lycccides, Hiibner, Verz. bek. Schmett. p. 69 (18 16). 



The type of this genus, the oldest of the Lyccenide genera, 

 was fixed by Cuvier (though he used only the plural form) as 



* See " Entomologist," xviii., pp. 249-252 (October, 1885), and " Pro- 

 ceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antifjuarian Field Club," viij, 

 PP 79-83, pl- 5 {'Coloured). 



