82 LEPIDOPTERA. 



black and bluish-white, along the hind margin. Cilia whitish, 

 with black dashes as in the male. 



Under side. Male, fore wings ashy grey, with two white- 

 ringed black spots before the middle ; another, larger, in the 

 centre ; and a row beyond it. Nearer the hind margin are 

 two rows of dusky spots, edged with white, sometimes having 

 a tinge of orange between them. Hind wings golden brown, 

 bluish at the base ; with numerous white-ringed black spots ; 

 and a marginal row of orange and black spots, edged with 

 white and black. Female golden brown, with spots as in the 

 male, except that there is an orange band between the mar- 

 ginal dusky rows in the fore wings. 



The male varies in the colour of the upper side, sometimes 

 to purplish, sometimes to a more silvery or even faintly 

 greenish-blue. Probably the colour is at times affected by 

 the degree of inclination or flattening of the scales. In the 

 female the principal range of variation is in the amount of 

 suffusion of blue upon the dark upper side. In a specimen 

 sent from Gloucestershire by Mr. R. C. L. Perkins, the sur- 

 face, except the margins, is richly dark blue. Occasionally 

 the black central spot of the fore wings is surrounded or 

 edged with white. 



The coast of Kent, where the species is abundant, appears to 

 be the most prolific by far in varieties, and Mr. Sydney Webb, 

 during his residence at Dover, has accumulated series of this 

 (and the next) spiecies which almost set description at defiance. 

 Males of that now under consideration are shot with greenish. 

 or are silvery blue, steel blue, lavender, or purplish, or have 

 irregular pale patches on the blue surface. One is even of a 

 dull greenish-black, and another blue-black. This last is a 

 very large specimen, and has the under side of so peculiar a 

 livid dark colour as greatly to resemble that of the conti- 

 nental Ghrysophmms Helle. 



Females present some strange aberrations ; one caught last 

 summer (1891) at Dover, is of the brilliant blue of the male 

 on the upper side, except that the fore wings have a marginal 



