86 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



Var. PapiKo coretas^ Ochsenheimer, Schmelt. Eur. i (2) p 60 



(1808). 

 Polyommatus argiades> Kirby, Eur. Butterflies and Moths, 



P- 53. P 1 - 14, % ii (1879)- 

 Lycczna argiades, Lang, Butterflies Europe, p 101, pi. 22, fig. 5 



(1882), Barrett, Lepid. Brit. Isl i. p. 68, pi. 10, figs 2, 



2<3, b (1892). 

 Papilio amyntas, Fabricius, Syst. Ent. p 533, no. 384 (1775); 



Hiibner, Eur. Schmett. i. figs. 322-324 (1803). 

 Polyommatus amyntas, Godart, Enc Meth ix. p. 659, no. 146 



(1823) 



This Butterfly measures from four-fifths of an inch to rather 

 more than an inch. The male is violet-blue above, with a 

 narrow brown border , and the female is brown, more or less 

 blue at the base ; the fringes are white. There are some 

 brown spots towards the anal angle of the hind-wings, marked 

 with orange in the female. The under side is of a pale blue 

 or bluish-grey, with a sub-marginal row of black spots, edged 

 within by a more or less distinct orange band (obsolete in var. 

 coretas), and a row of black spots across the disc of the wing ; 

 there is a black lunule at the end of the discoidal cell of the 

 fore-wings. 



The larva is pale green, with darker stripes, and brown and 

 white spots. It feeds on various species of Lotus, Trifolium, 

 &c., in June, and also from autumn to spring- 



This species is widely distributed throughout Southern and 

 Central Europe, and the greater part of Asia, and is also said 

 to occur in North America and Australia. It frequents open 

 flowery places in hilly districts, often in company with Zizera 

 minima, of which Schrank supposed it to be the male. But 

 it has only recently been discovered to be a British species, 

 the first British specimens having been taken by the sons of 



