BROWN ARGUS BLUE. 143 



Sunderland. Flisk, in Fifeshire; near Queensbury and Roslyn Castle; 

 Jardine Hall, Dumfriesshire; King's Park, Salisbury Crag, near 

 Duddingstone Lochj the Pentland Hills, and Arthur's Seat, near 

 Edinburgh, where the 'gaudentes rure caniajnae' will present more 

 attractions to the entomologist than the "Modern Athens" itself; also 

 near Perth. In Wales, on the sand-hills near Llandudno. 



For the most part this Blue seems to prefer the neighbourhood of 

 the coast. 



It is double-brooded, appearing in June and in August. 



The caterpillar is found in April and in June. 



It is said to feed on different grasses and the wild strawberry. 



The expansion of the wings is a little over an inch. The fore wings 

 are glossy brownish black, with a small crescent-shaped black spot 

 near the middle. The margin is narrow and pale whitish grey, with 

 very fine vein lines. The hind wings are of the like ground-colours, 

 with a row of bright orange-coloured crescented spots, largest on the 

 inside part, and nearly obliterated on the outer; in some specimens 

 they are all scarcely discernible. 



Underneath, the ground-colour of the fore wings is a chaste grey, 

 with a row, more or less curved, of clear white spots, within which 

 the spots shew through white, sometimes enclosing a black one; outside 

 the white row is another of orange, more or less bright, followed by 

 a slender black line; the inside border of the fringe, which is white. 

 The hind wings are of the same ground-colour, tinted with blue about 

 the base, near which there are three white spots, two others at and 

 near the upper edge, the former the larger, and an irregular row of 

 white spots, followed by another of orange ones, dotted with black on 

 their lower corner, bounded by the black line which makes the inside 

 of the fringe, which is white. 



"The caterpillar is green, with a pale augulated row of dorsal spots, 

 and a central brownish line. " 



The changes in the markings on the wings in this insect, in 

 different latitudes of the country, are certainly very curious; but though 

 described as three separate species, there seems every reason to believe, 

 or rather, in fact no reason to doubt, but that they are all referable 

 to one and the same butterfly — that before us; and that the opinion 

 expressed by Mr. Edward Newman, in the "Entomological IMagazine, " 

 volume ii., page 615, is correct; namely, that as they advance to the 

 midland counties, "an evident change has taken place, the band of 

 rust-coloured spots has become less bright; at Manchester these spots 

 have left the upper wing almost entirely; at Castle Eden Dene, they 

 are scarcely to be traced, and a black spot in the centre of the upper 



