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XVII. A Contribution to the Life-History of Plebeius 

 zephyrus var. lycidas. By T. A. Chapman, 

 M.D., F.Z.S. 



[Read November 4th, 1914.] 



Plates LXXXV-XC. 



On the 28th April 1914 I went to the locaUty near the 

 2nd Refuge on the Simplon route where Plebeius lycidas is 

 found, my object being to find, if possible, larvae of Agriades 

 escheri. Searching the plants of Astragalus exscapus I 

 found about a dozen larvae of P. lycidas and two which I 

 hoped might prove to be A. escheri. Of the larvae of 

 lycidas, two were nearly full-grown, the others mostly 

 small ; they were always well hidden near the centre of the 

 plant, the only indication of their presence was sometimes 

 a white apex to some of the leaflets of a few leaves where 

 the green material had been eaten away and the cuticle left 

 when the leaf was smaller. 



Their habits in captivity were to burrow deeply into 

 the central mass of leaves and flower buds, sometimes 

 almost going out of sight, but leaving a heap of f rass beside 

 the hind segments that remained visible. Their colour and 

 markings were so very similar to those of the plant, when 

 viewed together in this relationship, that I several times 

 overlooked a larva, till I returned to a root stock again 

 and more carefully examined it, because a larva was not 

 accounted for. 



The habits of A. escheri (?) in burrowing into the central 

 mass was very similar to that of lycidas. It may perhaps 

 be desirable to explain that the plant A. exscapus bears 

 a mass of flowers entirely sessile on the top of the root 

 stock, and that, at the season these larvae were feeding, 

 the flower-buds and young leaves made a somewhat solid 

 mass in the middle of the plant. 



The larvae seemed to be making for, and usually reached, 

 not the interior of the flower buds, but the growing stem- 

 material and young budding tissue just below them. 



A description of the larva is unnecessary in view of 

 Mr. Knight's excellent drawings, and the photographs 

 showing the structure of the clothing of hairs. 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1914. — PARTS III, IV. (PEB.) 



