LYC^NIDM. 79 



lated spots disappear, or even all the spots, except the 

 central spot of the fore wings, which is singularly permanent. 

 The female is wonderfully variable. In southern English 

 localities it is sometimes found of a dull brown without a trace 

 of blue on the upper side, though more frequently a few 

 blue scales appear near the base, or in increasing numbers until 

 the middle is tinged with blue. In the eastern counties the 

 brown colour is often much darker, the blue suffusion appear- 

 ing consequently brighter. Northward and westward the pro- 

 portion of blue seems to increase, until, in the north and west 

 of Ireland, the upper side in this sex is ordinarily of a brilliant 

 glossy blue, except at the margins, which are nearly always 

 more or less dark brown, broken by the orange spots, — which 

 in many of these specimens are large and brilliant, — and often 

 by white dashes between, or by white borders on both the 

 inside and outside of, the orange spots. Not unfrequently such 

 specimens have white dashes in the blue towards the apex, or 

 white scales round the central black spot, and one in Mr. 

 Russ's collection has a central white spot on the upper side 

 of the hind wings. The more curious irregular aberrations, 

 however, are usually found on the south coast of England, and 

 those in tlie collection of Mr. Sydney Webb almost defy 

 enumeration. Gynandrous specimens are actually numerous, 

 some with the right side male, some the left ; and some have 

 only one wing female, the remaining three being male ; while 

 in one case half of a hind wing only is female. Others 

 have streaks of brown on the male side or of blue on the 

 female. One female is wholly pale golden-brown, of the 

 colour of Ccvnonymplm Pajrqjhilu-'^ ; another extremely dark 

 brown with the marginal spots all yellow. A male taken 

 at Dover is of precisely the pale silvery blue of P. Eros, a 

 species not found in these islands, but does not agree with 

 the latter in markings; another is dark iron-blue, more 

 like P. Ariuv. Mr. C. A. Briggs has also an extraordinary 

 series of these south-coast aberrations, the most remarkable 

 being one in which all the four wings are differently spotted 



