1887.] 73 
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF LYC^NA ME DON, HUPNAGEL (POLYOM- 
MATUS AOESTIS, OCHSENHEIMER). 
UT PROFESSOR P. C. ZELLER. 
Diagnosis of the larva — 
Larva — Ifete virida, capite nigro, albido-setosa, obaoletissime di- 
lutius oblique strigata, liuea dorsali vittaque lata laterali purpureis. 
Diagnosis of the pupa — 
Chrysalis — pallida succinea, linea abdominis dorsali vittaque laterali 
purpureis roseisve, liiieola oculi arcuata nigra. 
In Kirby's " Catalogue des Rhopaloceres d'Europe dont les che- 
nilles ne sont pas connues ou ne le sout qu' imparfaitemeut " (Annales 
de la Societe Entomologique de France, 1865,) Polyommatus Agestis 
stands amongst those of which we briefly read " les chenilles ne sont 
pas connues." "Wilde also in his work " Die Pflanzen uud Raupen 
Deutschlauds," 1861, II, p. 41, knows nothing of the larva. The notice 
which Stainton gives of the appearance of the larva according to West- 
wood, in the Manual, I, p. 62, is incorrect ; the food only is correctly 
stated. The only correct notice of the natural history of this species 
of iyc<:erta, which I communicated in the " Isis," 1840, p. 126, runs 
thus : " the eggs are laid on the under-side of the leaves of Erodmm 
cicutarium, often several together, but scattered. In eight to ten days 
the larvsB emerge. In the middle of April I found a tolerably well- 
grown onisciform larva, which was pubescent and greenish, with darker 
dorsal line, and with rosy lateral margins. It hid itself between the 
stipulse of the leaf-stalk, and ate holes in the former and in the young 
leaves. I have not bred it." So would the larva belong at least to the 
" imparfaitemeut connues," even if it should appear, from what follows, 
that it can be otherwise defined with few words. 
After several attempts, which I made in the beginning of the 
summer of last year, to observe the female whilst ovipositing, and which 
were always fruitless, through the weather, I at last succeeded on the 
22nd of August. A female settled on a fallow field on the bare ground. 
As I observed in her vicinity some young Erodium plants just developed 
from the seeds, I did not disturb her ; consequently I saw how she ap- 
proached towards one of these plants, and, after a short rest, curved 
her abdomen, and deposited an egg on the under-side of a small leaf; 
having done this, she flew away. This egg had the ordinary form of 
those of the genus Lyccena, was greenish-white, and retained this colour 
till the 31st August, when it was white, and had above a large kidney- 
