j„g BRITISH BUTTERFLIES 



SPECIES 7.— POLYOMMATIIS ADONIS. THE CLIFDEN BLUE BUTTERFLY. 



Plate xi'xiii. fig. 1 — 3. 



Synonvmes.— i/es;)erJo Adonis, Fabricius. Painlio Argus, nonovan, Brit. Ins. pi. I4.S, fig. I, female (not the 



Papilio Adonis.Lemn, Pap. pi. 38, fig. 1—3 ; Ilawc.rtli. upper figures, wliicli belong to P. Alexis, and not the Pap. Argus of 



Z,jrc«Ha ^</o«w, Ochsenheinier; Leach; Sauiouellc. Linnceus). 



Polyommatus Adonis, Stephens ; t:nrtis ; Wood, Ind. Ent. pi. 2, Papilio Ceronus, Hiibner, Pap. pi. 29.5—29". 



I. 6fi ; Duncan, Brit. Butt. pi. 33, fi?. 1 -2. Pnpitio Bellargus, Esper; ViUars ; Miiller. 



This the most splendiil of all the British blues, varies from 11 to \h 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 similar in their situation ; there is, 

 iiowever, 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 

 wino-, and in the hind wings there is a subniarginal 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 iu these particulars : the 

 white blotch on the hind wings and the orange subniarginal 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 Suifolk. As it is by far the most lovely of the 

 British blues, it used to be much sought after by the Spitalfields collectors, who, as Mr. Ilaworth states, made 

 distant pedestrian excursions for the sole purpose of procuring its charming males to decorate their pictures \\\t\\ : 

 — 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. Ilaworth mentions having seen some wliich 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 adniii'es. 



See to the shady grove he wings his way 



And feels in hope the rapture of the day — 



