LAMPIDES. 83 



Polyommatus bceticus, Kirby, Eur. Butterflies and Moths, p. 53 



(1879). 

 Lycana fatica, Milliere, Icones, i. p. 245, pi. 4, figs. 1-6 (1861), 



Lang, Butterflies Eur. p. 99, pi. 22, fig. 2; pi. 28, fig. 5 



(larva) (1881). 

 Lyccena bcetica> Barrett, Lepid. Brit. Isl. i. p. 65, pi. 10, figs. 



i, la (1892). 



This Butterfly expands about an inch and a quarter across 

 the fore-wings, which are violet-blue in the male, with narrow 

 brown borders, and grey fringes. There are generally two 

 black spots at the anal angle of the hind-wings, near which is 

 a slender tail. The female is brown, more or less blue at 

 the base of the fore-wings, and towards the inner-margin 

 of the hind-wings, and often has some zig-zag whitish 

 markings within the black sub-marginal spots, which are more 

 numerous than in the male, and are edged with white on the 

 inside. The under side is pale brown, with numerous white 

 streaks ; most of these are straight, and converge more or less 

 towards the inner-margin of the wings ; the dark sub-marginal 

 spots are edged within with white crescents, and beyond the 

 middle of the hind-wings is a broad, nearly straight, and 

 slightly irregular white band. The spots towards the anal 

 angle of the hind-wings are black, edged below with metallic 

 green, and broadly surrounded with orange. 



The larva is green or reddish-brown, with a dark dorsal line, 

 and a white lateral line below the yellow spiracles ; the head is 

 black. The eggs are laid on the stems of the bladder-senna 

 (Colutea arborescens\ and on other leguminous plants. The 

 young larvae hatch in the following summer, when they pierce 

 the pods, and feed on the seeds. On reaching their full 

 growth they abandon the pods, and the pupa is usually 

 attached to a stem, or formed among the dried leaves of the 

 food-plant. The pupa is reddish or yellowish, with brown 



o 2 



