54 THE GENERA AND SPECIES OF BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 
The Caterpillar (No. 8) feeds most commonly on Lucerne, in April, and again in September, 
there being two broods in the year. It also feeds on Clover and Bird’s-foot Trefoil. 
The Chrysalis (No. 9) is attached by a girth round the middle to a stem of the plant on 
which the Caterpillar has fed. There are many varieties of this pretty species, principally 
among the females. Some of these have the brown scales of the upper surface of the wings so 
thickly intermingled with blue ones that the blue colour almost preponderates, and the females 
have almost the appearance of very dark coloured males. But the most singular variety is that 
known as the Hermaphrodite (No. 8), which has the brown wings of the female on one side, and 
the azure wings of the male on the other. Other varieties were thought distinct species both by 
Lewin and Haworth, and Jermyn, and distinguished as P. Hyacinthus, P. Thestylis, and P. Lacon. 
Some of these varieties are so constant in some localities that one of our most accomplished ento- 
mologists (the late Mr. Stephens), even within the last few years was inclined to consider them 
distinct species. But recent observations of exotic Butterflies have shown such extraordinary 
aberrations in the usual specific characters, that such distinctions as those alluded to must cease 
to be regarded as anything more than variations produced by some local influence, such as soil, 
climate, food, or some such other disturbing cause. Among the most remarkable aberrations in 
size and colouring of exotic Butterflies, evidently of the same species, those of the magnifi- 
cent Papilio Priamus may be cited. This gorgeous insect in its ordinary character, has the 
ground colour of the upper surface of the wings, of a full deep metallic green, while in a speci- 
men just received at the British Museum the green is replaced by a perfectly distinct tone of 
rich orange yellow. 
No. 7 is one of the more usual varieties of the female of P. Alexis, in which the wings are 
nearly as blue as those of the males, but have the distinctive border which is found in brown 
specimens. 
