ZYG.-ENID.E. 135 



wings entirely deep dark steel-blue, with the spots only- 

 visible by their more dull reflection of light ; and hind wings 

 purplish black. Of this aberration there is a specimen in a 

 collection made forty years ago, by Mr. Robertson, and still 

 preserved at Liverpool by his family ; another was taken, 

 just emerged from the pupa, in the New Forest by Mr. 

 Herbert Goss, a third has been secured by Mr. B. G. Rye in 

 Sussex, and Dr. Mason has a fourth. Mr. C. A. Briggs has 

 one in which the usually dark portions of the forewings are 

 very pale and nearly transparent and the hind wings pinkish 

 white. This was taken near Folkestone. Others in Mr. 

 Webb's collection are light blue with hind wings white 

 except the base which is pink ; and the gradations, and inter- 

 mediate variations, of most of these forms, in some of our 

 larger collections, almost defy enumeration. There are 

 even local races in form of the wings, one with narrow wings 

 is said to be common in the Isle of Man ; and from the north 

 of Ireland specimens are obtained with fore and hind wings 

 short and more rounded than usual. One such, with very 

 short broad round wings, has no trace of the lower middle 

 spot on the right forewing ; all the spots are small, and the 

 outermost strongly divided by the nervure. It is sent from 

 Londonderry by Mr. D. C. Campbell. The most extraordinary 

 specimen known however, and perhaps the most remarkable 

 malformation or aberration extant of any recorded Lepido- 

 pterous insect, is a specimen which was reared a few years 

 ago by Mr. N. M. Richardson from a pupa collected in 

 Cambridgeshire. This specimen has five wings, the fifth 

 being substituted for the left hind leg^ which is absent, and is 

 attached to the underpart of the thorax at the spot at which 

 the first joint of the leg would have arisen had it been 

 present. This fifth is a hind wing in structure though paler 

 in colour, and has the usual dark border. It is fully half 

 the size of a normal hind wing. 



On the wing in July and August — in some seasons in 

 June. 



