102 



BRITISH BUTTERFIJKS 



where tlie holly abounds *. It is by no means uncommon, although certainly local. Some years ago it appeared 

 for two consecutive years in my garden, at Hammersmitli, where some hollies had then recently been planted, but 

 I have not since seen it. Epping Forest, near Riple)', near Dartford, and various parts of Norfolk, Suffolk, 

 Hants, and Devonshire, are recorded as its localities by Mr. Stephens. Not unfrequently near Newcastle, in places 

 where hollies abound, and also in Castle Eden Dean, by Mr. Duncan. The Rev. W. T. Bree informs us it is 

 common near Allesley in the early spring (as early as the middle of April), and that he has taken it in the Isle of 

 Wight in the month of July. The middle of May and end of August are given as the times of its appearance by 

 Haworth and Stephens, but the Rev. W. T. Bree states that it seems to be only single brooded near Allesley ; 

 during the present season he has not, however, observed it in any of its usual localities near Coventry. In 

 Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, Nos. 21, 23, 24, 27, 30, 05, and GO, are various communications relative 

 to this butterfly chiefly connected with the question as to whether it is a single or double-brooded species. 



S^PECIES .1.— POLVOMMATUS ACIS. THE MAZARINE BLUE BUTTERFLY. 



Plate xxxi. Hl'. 9—11. 



Papilio Ci/vwn, Lewin, Pap. pi. 38, f. 6, 7. Haworth ; Jernivn. 

 hyctena Cynuin, Leach ; Saunnielle. 



Papilio Argiolvs^ Esper. Sclimett. t. 21, f. 1. Hiihner Pap. 

 p. 50, f. 21)7—9. 



Papilio Semiargus, Borkhausen. 



SvNoNVMEs. — Papilio Acis, Wiener Vera., Emit. l,pl. 42, fi^' 88, 

 a_(l. 



Lyc<B7m Acis, Ochsetiheimer. 



Polyommaius Acis, Stephens ; Cuitis ; Woutl, Ind. Ent. t. 2, f. G3. 

 Duncan, Brit. Bi.tt. pi. 31, fig. 4. 



Nomiades Acis, Hubner (Verz. hek. Schmett. ) 



This very distinct species differs from the two preceding in the complete diversity in the colour of the upper 

 surface of the wings of the two sexes, being blue in the male and dark brown in the female. The expansion of 

 the wings is rather more or less tli.an an inch and a quarter. The upper side of the wings, in the male, is of a 

 dark-puriilisli blue, the costa of the fore wings with a very thin edging of white. The outer margin in all the 

 winos is narrow and dark brown, which colour runs up into the wing along the veins ; the fringe of all the wino-s 

 is white. Beneath, the wings are of a pale greyish-brown, the base being saturated with blue ; there is a slender 

 transverse dark line at the extremity of the discoidal cell of each wing, beyond which is a curved row of irregular 

 sized black spots, margined with white rings, there being sometimes as many as seven such spots on each wing ; 

 that near the anal angle of the hind wings being minute and doubled ; there are also sometimes one or two 

 ocellated spots near the base, but tlic number of these spots is liable to considerable variation. All the wings 

 have a very narrow outer marginal line of darker brown. 



The female diflers from the male in having the upper side of all the wings dark brown, sometimes witii a 

 slight purplish irroration towards the base in both pair of wings. 



This rare species frequents chalky districts. The late Mr. Haworth gave Yorkshire and Norfolk as its 

 localities, and Miss Jermyn, Sherborne, &c., Dorsetshire. Various parts of Cambridge, Hampshire, and 

 Windlesham-heath, Surrey, arc mentioned by Mr. Stephens. There are also some notices of this insect in the 

 31st and 32nd Numbers of Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, by the Rev. W. T. Bree, who informs us that 

 he once took it in Colcshill Park, Warwickshire, also near Ilinklcy, Leicestershire ; other specimens have also 

 been taken in Worcestershire. 



* It is a more restless anil high-fljing insect tlian any of the other Polyonimati, hoveling and vapouring about the trees and bushes. Mr. 

 Bree also observes that it does not evince the same partiality for settling upon flowers and leaves of humble growth, as it does fur settling on the 

 leaves of the holly. 



