92 Lloyd's natural history. 



The Butterfly is slightly larger than its allies, on the average, 

 expanding from an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half 

 across the wings. The male is of a light silvery-blue with a 

 fine silky lustre, with a moderately broad dark border, bordered 

 on the inside witli a row of black spots. The female is brown, 

 with a black discoidal spot and a sub-marginal orange band on 

 the hind-wings within the black spots. The under side is grey, 

 with discoidal lunules, a basal eye on the fore-wings, and a 

 sub-marginal row of orange spots. On the hind-wings there 

 are three basal spots, separated from the central row, so as 

 not to form a regular curve round the discoidal spot. The 

 fringes are broadly spotted with black and white, except on 

 the under side of the hind-wings, in which the fringes are 

 white. 



This species varies very much in Southern Europe and Asia 

 Minor, and to a less extent with us. One of its varieties {P. 

 albica7is) is nearly white above in the male. 



The female is admittedly very difficult to distinguish from 

 that of the foUowmg species, with the second brood of which 

 it is usually found in company. The black spaces of the 

 fringes are, however, a little broader, and the orange sub- mar- 

 ginal spots are rather larger in P. corydon. Stainton gives the 

 differences as follows: ^^ P. corydon ? . Under side of hind-wings 

 with a distinct black spot in a white blotch near the middle, 

 faintly visible on the upper side. Besides, in P. corydon we find 

 the dark dashes in the white fringes broader and more conspi- 

 cuous than in P. adonis. A further point of distinction is that 

 the black spots of the under side are more conspicuous in P 

 corydon than in P. adonisJ' 



The larva is green, with yellow dorsal and lateral lines ; it 

 feeds on various papilionaceous plants. "Pupa brownish-green, 

 unattached, on or under the ground " {Barrett). 



Concerning the colours of the males of this and the follow- 



