BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



16. Small Blue (Lyccena Alsus). Upper side. 



Under side. 



46. SMALL BLUE. The colour of the upper 

 side is smoky brown, faintly tinged with sil- 

 very blue, an appearance communicated by the 

 presence of scattered metallic scales ; the costal 

 margin is white ; the fringe has the basal por- 

 tion brown, the outer portion white. The 

 under side is silvery gray ; half-way between 

 the base and tip of the fore wing is a short, 

 linear, transverse, discoidal spot, and again 

 half-way between this and the hind margin is 

 a transverse series of seven black spots ; on 

 the hind wings there is the usual median 

 transverse, linear, discoidal spot, and ten other 

 black spots, one of them near the costal mar- 

 gin at its base, another between this and the 

 inner margin, and another near the anal angle; 

 the remaining eight form an irregular trans- 

 verse median series ; all the spots have a dis- 

 tinct pale circumscription. 



Obs. There is no marginal series of orange 

 spots, and the white submedian blotch is also 

 absent. 



LIFE HISTORY. At page 205 of No. 33 of 

 the " Entomologists' Monthly Magazine/' Mr. 

 J. Gedge, of Cambridge, gives us the following 

 interesting account of the oviposition of this 

 species : 



" On June 27th, the perfect insect was out 

 a great abundance, so I set to work to dis- 

 cover its food-plant. I soon observed that 

 they did not care much for the great masses of 

 kidney vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria), but rather 

 chose to settle upon the scattered flowers of 

 this and other plants. Presently, however, I 

 saw one settle on a flower-head of the kidney 

 vetch which showed 110 yellow blossoms. I 



remained perfectly still. It walked down 

 between the flower-buds, and dragged ite 

 body between the woolly calyces ; all round 

 the flower-head it went, and then turn<^d up 

 its body, and flew off to another head. Here 

 there were two or three blossoms just open, 

 but it seemed to go through the same process 

 Upon gathering the flower-heads, I found, in 

 each case, a single egg laid between the downy 

 calyces. This I saw repeated many times. 

 The insect showed great discrimination in the 

 flower-heads she chose ; often she settled on 

 one, walked round it, then flew off to another, 

 and sometimes to a third, before she was satis- 

 fied. Never did she seem to be content unless 

 there were some buds on the head ; at any 

 rate, I particularly noticed that she avoided 

 those where the blossoms had faded, leaving 

 the calyx, the first food of the caterpillar, 

 dry. Twice I saw what I took to be a female 

 settle on the flower-head of the horse-shoe 

 vetch (Hippocrepis comosa) ; in one case the 

 insect remained some time, but in neither 

 case was there any egg. The eggs were of a 

 glaucous hue, and under the microscope were 

 found to be most perfectly reticulated , the 

 meshes which stood out in relief were not 

 hexagonal, as in Pyrarga JEgeria,\)ut perfectly 

 rhombical,and knotted at the junction of their 

 angles. They hatched on the sixth day (July 

 3rd). The caterpillars began by eating the 

 hairy calyx, then they passed into it, and fed 

 on the legume." 



The CATERPILLAR is woodlouse-sh aped, with 

 a small, shining, retractile head, distinctly 

 divided segments, dilated sides, and a shallow 

 medio-dorsal furrow. The head is black, the 

 body green, the medio-dorsal furrow orange- 

 red, with a paler ridge on each side ; on each 

 segment is an oblique yellowish line, bordered 

 below by orange-red, and the lateral dilatation 

 is also yellowish, forming a pale side-stripe ; 

 on each segment between this side-stripe and 

 the oblique line already noticed is a linear 

 yellowish spot. The CHRYSALIS is obese and 

 blunt-headed ; it is attached by a belt to a 

 stalk of the food-plant ; its colour is yellow, 

 with three longitudinal series of black spots, 

 one of which is medio dorsal. 



