239 



COMMON BLUE BUTTERFLY. 



Polyommatus Alexis. 



(See VIGNETTE.) 



Pap. Alexis, Hubner Pap. Icarus, Lewin, pi. 38 Pap. 

 Argus, Donovan, iv. pi. 143. <J (two upper figs.) Blue 

 Butterfly, Harris. Pap. Hyacinthus, Lewin, pi. 37. f. 4-i, 

 var. Polyom. Thestylis, Jermyn, var. 



ABOUT the size of the preceding, which it very 

 much resembles, but is readily distinguished by the 

 colour of the surface, which is bright lilac-blue in 

 the male, and by the fringe of the wings being white 

 and unspotted. The hinder border is narrowly mar- 

 gined with black ; the anterior edge of the upper 

 wings is white, and the hairs on the body and base 

 of the wings incline to that colour. The female is 

 generally brown above, powdered with blue towards 

 the base of the wings (sometimes, however, the sur- 

 face is entirely purplish-blue), and ornamented with 

 a posterior fulvous band, somewhat ocellated on the 

 hinder pair, each lunule having a central black spot. 

 Beneath, brownish-ash colour, with the base in- 

 clining to green, the upper wings usually having two 

 ocelli near the body, a slender central streak lying 

 transversely, and a curved row of ocelli near the 



