106 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES 
SPECIES 7.—POLYOMMATUS ADONIS. THE CLIFDEN BLUE BUTTERFLY. 
Plate xxxiii. fig. 1—3. 
Synonymes.—Hesperia Adonis, Fabricius. Papilio Argus, Donovan, Brit. Ins. pl. 143, fig. 1, female (not the 
Papilio Adonis, Lewin, Pap. pl. 38, fig. 1—3 ; Haworth. upper figures, which belong to P. Alexis, and not the Pap, Argus of 
Lycena Adonis, Ochsenheimer ; Leach ; Samouelle. Linnzus). 
Papilio Ceronus, Hiibner, Pap. pl. 295—297. 
Papilio Bellargus, Esper; Villars; Miiller. 
Polyommatus Adonis, Stephens ; Curtis ; Wood, Ind. Ent. pl. 2, 
f. 66; Duncan, Brit. Butt. pl. 33, fig. 1=9: 

This, the most splendid of all the British blues, varies from 14 to 14 inches in the expanse of the wings, 
which in the males are of a most lovely, shining, silvery, azure blue; the costa of the fore wings rather more 
silvery, and the outer margin of the wings with a slender dark line, the fringe white, with small brown patches 
at equal distances. On the under side the ground colour of the wings is darker than in the corresponding sex of 
P. Corydon, and the ocelli are more strongly marked, although nearly simiiar in their situation ; there is, 
however, only a remote spot preceding the dot at the end of the discoidal cell of the fore wings, and the 
succeeding series of spots is more continuous, the fifth from the costa not being thrown so much forward as to 
break the curve, as it is in P. Corydon. , The ocelli and other spots on the under side of the hind wings are, 
however, almost exactly placed as in that species, and they are also similarly coloured. 
The female has the upper surface of the body and wings of a dark brown colour, the disc towards the base 
being sometimes saturated with blue ; there is a small black spot at the extremity of the discoidal cell in each 
wing, and in the hind wings there is a submarginal row of ocellated black spots, the inner part of the iris of each 
being marked with an orange curve, the ocelli towards the outer angle being almost obliterated ; some specimens 
also, have the rudiments of a series of fulvous arches nearer the outer margin, the fringe is brownish white, inter- 
rupted with brown spots ; on the under side the ground colour of the wings, as in P. Corydon, is darker than in 
the males, and the ocelli larger and more conspicuously ocellated with whitish, although similar in their-situation, 
The position, size and number of the ocelli on the under side are liable to some variation ; and I possess 
several specimens in which the opposite sides do not exactly correspond with each other in these particulars: the 
white blotch on the hind wings and the orange submarginal spots are also sometimes almost obliterated. 
The caterpillar is described by Fabricius as being green, with dorsal rows of fulvous spots. The perfect 
insect appears to be double brooded, the first specimens appearing at the end of May, and the others at the 
middle of August. It occurs in various parts of the southern counties of England, especially in chalky 
districts, in some profusion. It also occurs in some parts of Suffolk. As it is by far the most lovely of the 
British biues, it used to be much sought after by the Spitalfields collectors, who, as Mr. Haworth states, made 
distant pedestrian excursions for the sole purpose of procuring its charming males to decorate their pictures with : 
—a picture, consisting of numerous and beautiful Lepidoptera ornamentally and regularly disposed, having been the 
ultimate object of these assiduous people in the science of Entomology. These pictures were of various shapes and 
sizes, and Mr. Waworth mentions having seen some which contained at least five hundred specimens. Such was 
the custom some twenty-five years ago, and it is this class of persons whose feelings Crabbe thus records in his 
* Borough '"— 
“ There is my friend the weaver ; strong desires 
Reign in his breast ; ’tis beauty he admires. 
See to the shady grove he wings his way 
And feels in hope the rapture of the day— 
