90 LLOYD S NATURAL HISTORY. 



GENUS POLYOMMATUS. 

 Polyommatus, Latreille, Hist. Nat Crust. Ins. xiv. p. 116 



(1805); id. Enc. Meth, ix. pp. u, 618 (1819-23); 



Stephens, 111. Brit. Ent. Haust. i. p. 83 (1828). 

 Lycana, p. Fabricius, Illiger's Mag. Insekt. vi. p. 285 (1807); 



Leach, Edinb. Encycl. ix. p. 129 (1815); Westwood 



Gen. Diurn. Lepid. p. 488 (1852). 



When Latreille established the genus Polyommatus he figured 

 P. corydon, and thus, in my opinion, permanently fixed the type. 

 Dr. Scudder disallows this, and selects P. baticus as the type 

 of Polyommatus, but this, being a streaked, and not primarily 

 a spotted species, cannot possibly be regarded as typical of a 

 genus deriving its name from its " many eyes." 



As regards Lycana, Dr. Scudder considers that as Oken 

 restricted it to the "Blues" in a work published in 1815, L. 

 phlceas is not admissible as the type, but Oken's action, I take 

 it, is forestalled by Leach, who published an article in the same 

 year (1815) in which he divided the genus Lyccena (with Polyom- 

 matus as a synonym) into two sections, the first including the 

 Coppers and the second the Blues, commencing with P. corydon, 

 the type of Polyommatus, and thus restricting Lyccena (true) to 

 the Coppers. Subsequently Curtis indicated L. phlaas as the 

 type of the genus Lycana. The species which Dr. Scudder 

 selects as the type of Lyceena is Papilio endymion, Den. and 

 Schiff., a light blue species, with a brown female, with sub- 

 marginal spots bordered with white, which is found in many 

 parts of Southern and South-Central Europe, and which is 

 remarkable for having the hind-wings dentated in the female, 

 and slightly so towards the anal angle in the male. 



In the present genus we may include all the British species 

 which are tail-less, and destitute of metallic markings beneath, 

 and which have well-marked orange sub-marginal spots on the 

 under side of the hind-wings. Most of the species belonging 



