\ 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Vol. LI.] APEIL, 1918. [No. 659 



SOME NOTES ON PLEBEIUS ARGUS (ARGYRO- 

 GNOMON, AUCT.) : ITS SCANDINAVIAN FORMS 

 AND DISTRIBUTION. 



By H. Rowland-Beown, M.A., F.E.S. 



In my obituary notice of the late Mr. R. S. Standen 

 (' Entomologist,' vol. 1, p. 264) I mentioned bis claim to have 

 captured Plebeius cegon var. Corsica, Bellier, in Soutbern Norway. 

 I also suggested that the purchaser of the Plebeiids from Mr. 

 Standen's collection might be able to throw some light upon the 

 subject. A few weeks after the notice appeared I was able, 

 through the good offices of Mr. J. C. Stevens, to get in touch 

 with Mr. Pether, the possessor of the lots in question. Tbis 

 gentleman most kindly sent for my insj)ection the Plebeiids 

 taken by Mr. Standen in Norway, and permitted me to retain a 

 male and female of the ^'corsica" taken at Soon, about twelve miles 

 south of Christiania on the fjiord of that name, and recorded in 

 the pages of this magazine. 



At first sight of the upper side they appeared to be the form 

 of P. cegon named by Tutt var. masseyi ; and when it is remem- 

 bered that Tutt himself originally announced the occurrence in 

 Westmoreland of var. Corsica on the strength of Mr. Massey's 

 "Witberslack specimens, it is not unreasonable to suppose that 

 Mr. Standen identified his Norwegian "co?-s2Crt " from Mr. Massey's 

 description,* which was admittedly suggested by Tutt. 



Otherwise, how Mr. Standen came to identify this bog form 

 of cegon with var. Corsica is incomprehensible. He had personal 

 knowledge of the Corsican form with the typical and, I believe, 

 invariable "blue" female, when he wrote his note ('Entomolo- 

 gist,' vol. xxxvii, p. 263, 1904), having collected in the island, 

 and reported his captures in 1898 {op. cit., vol. xxvi). Tutt's 

 identification is even more remarkable, in view of his habit 

 of careful and meticulous investigation, and the considerable 

 number of examples of the true var. Corsica in British collections 

 at his disposal even tbus early. The under side of the wings of 

 the ? masseyi displays the exact antithesis of the blurred pale 

 marked $ Corsica. But the error, already adjusted in 1909, was 

 * ' Entomologist's Eecord,' vol. vii, pp. 127 (1895). 

 ENTOM. — APRIL, 1918. H 



