72 LYCANIDZ. LYCAENA. 
This is a very distinct species and cannot be mistaken for any hitherto recorded from Indian 
limits. In the male the blue coloration is very dusky and confined to the basal two-thirds 
of the wings on the upperside, the black disco-cellular spot on the forewing being very pro- 
minent. The dark colour of the ground on the underside is also very distinctive. It is also 
remarkable for having the anal black spots on the underside of the hindwing sprinkled with 
metallic greenish scales, a feature of the fourth group, and the cilia spotted with black, 
as in one other Indian species only, Z. Aylas, Wiener Verzeichniss, which comes into my 
sixth group. I have taken this species on two occasions very commonly in the Dras 
Valley, Ladak, in the beginning of July, and as far as I know the species is confined 
to this valley. Mr, H. J. Elwes informs me that Z. devanicais nearest to LZ. phryxis, Stau- 
dinger, MS., described by Dr. Lang in his “ Butterflies of Europe,” p. 372. It occurs at 
Samarkand in Turkestan. 
649. Lycena ariana, Moore. 
Polyommatus ariana, Moore, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1865, p. 504, n. 103, pl. xxxi, fig. 2, #ale; idem, id., 
1, c., 1874, p. 271, n. 65; idem, id., Scien. Res. Second Yarkand Mission, Lep., p. 6, n. 22 (1879); Lycena ariana, 
id., Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1882, p. 246; id., Doherty, Journ. A. S. B., vol. lv, pt. 2, p. 133, 0.179 (1886) ; 
Cupido ariana, Butler, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1886, p. 368, n. 48 ; idem, id., Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., sixth 
series, vol. i, p. 149, n. 55 (1888). 
HasitarT : Kunawar; Mataian, Dras Valley (11,200 feet); Leh; Kashmir (Jfoore) ; 
Murree, August and September ; Thundiani, August and September (2udéler) ; Naini Tal, 
4,000 to $8,000 feet (Doherty). 
EXPANSE: 6, 1'2 to 1°63; 9, 1'I to 1°6 inches. 
DESCRIPTION : “ MALE. UPPERSIDE, doth wings brilliant blue. Aindwing with the 
anterior margin black, inner margin whitish. Czdia broad, white. UNDERSIDE, doth wings 
purple-grey. Aindwing suffused with metallic greenish-grey at base. Forewing with a 
small spot within discoidal cell [often wanting], another closing the cell ; a submarginal 
discal series of six spots (the posterior, sixth, geminated), black, each encircled with white ; 
a marginal series of ill-defined double whitish spots, the posterior having slight dark 
centres. Hindwing with two basal and a submarginal discal series of seven black spots 
encircled with white ;a marginal row of whitish spots, each centred exteriorly with a dark, 
and interiorly with a reddish spot ; a triangular spot in the middle of the wing, and a streak 
from middle of exterior margin, whitish. Body white. FEMALE. UPPERSIDE, both wings 
duller lilac-blue, with the exterior margins brownish. UNDERSIDE as in male.” (J/oore, |. c.) 
“An abundant species, frequenting pasture- and meadow-land in the summer months, 
at altitudes of $,000 to 10,000 feet, alighting on the gentians which stud the green turf,” 
(Note by Colonel A. M. Lang, R.£.) 
‘The female appears to vary almost as much as in C. écarus of Europe.” (Buéler, 1. c. in 
Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist.) 
L. ariana is the commonest and most widely distributed species of the genus in India, 
occurring to the eastwards as far as Naini Tal at any rate, and to the westwards throughout 
Kashmir, Ladak, and Baltistan, Both sexes are variable; the male, as described by Mr. 
Moore from Kunawar, has on the upperside of both wings no outer black border; this is so 
also in some specimens which I have from Chini and parts of Kashmir; in others moreover 
from Pangi, Lahoul, some parts of Kashmir, and Ladak, there is a distinct black border, which 
is very variable in width; in one Pangi specimen, in which it is at its maximum, it is over 
one-tenth of an inch wide. The underside of the male varies in the shade of the ground- 
colour, some specimens being much darker than others, in the prominence of all the markings, 
and in the total absence in some examples of the marginal reddish spots. The female too is 
very variable; most frequently the upperside is entirely smoky brown with no trace of blue 
coloration; sometimes there is a complete series of six orange marginal spots on the hindwing 
and five on the forewing ; these are sometimes almost obsolete, and every gradation occurs 
between these extremes. ‘lhe underside is always much darker than in the male, all the 
