THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



No. XIV. 



DECEMBER, MDCCCXLI. 



Price 6d. 



Art. LII. — Description of a New North American Polyommatus. 

 Bj Edward Doubleday, Esq. 



Dicite 15 Paean : et lo bis dicite Paean : 

 Deciclit in casses praecla petita meos. 



Ovid. Art. Amat. 2. 



Three species of the genus Polyommatus have long been known 

 to inhabit the United States, viz. P. Comyntas, (Goclt.), pseudargi- 

 olus, (Boisd.), and Filenus, (Poey.). These all belong to distinct 

 sections of the genus ; P. Comyntas, like the Europsean Bceticus, 

 being tailed, and in habits as well as in this peculiarity approaching 

 the Thecla? ; P. pseudargiolus belonging to the same group as our 

 Argiolus, and differing from the more typical species in structure as 

 well as their habits of frequenting trees and bushes, whence the ap- 

 propriateness of the name of wood-blue applied to Argiolus by Eng- 

 lish collectors ; and P. Filenus belonging to a group nearly confined 

 to low latitudes, and widely dispersed in Africa, Asia and America, 

 which may generally be known by the dull upper surface of most of 

 the species, and the large ocellus on the under surface of the pos- 

 terior wings not far from the anal angle. 



I have long been aware of the existence of another and far finer 

 species of Polyommatus, in the United States, and have anxiously 

 sought for it in old cabinets, in the ho-pe that some specimens of it 

 sent to England by Abbot might somewhere be in existence, but it 

 was only a few days since that I had the good fortune to obtain the 

 specimens which now enable me to describe this hitherto inedited spe- 

 cies, and my delight at procuring them was fully proportioned to the 

 anxiety which I had felt to obtain them. I propose to call this spe- 

 cies — 



Pol. Lygdamus. Alis supra nitide ceeruleis, ciliis fuscis, ant fuscis 

 disco plus minusve caeruleo, subtus cinereis striga communi 

 juxta marginem punctorum magnorum ocellatorum. (Exp. alar. 

 1 unc. 3 — 5 lin.) 



Inhabits the pine forests of North America, especially Georgia. 

 The specimens are in my own collection. 



P 



