CYANIRIS. 103 



As in the other forms of the insect, P. artaxerxes is a brown 

 Butterfly with white fringes, and a sub-marginal band of red 

 spots, more or less obsolete in the male. There is a con- 

 spicuous white discoidal spot on the fore-wings. On the 

 under side, which is light brownish-grey, the discoidal spots, 

 the outer band of spots, and the basal spots on the hind-wings, 

 are all conspicuously white, without any black centres; the 

 sub-marginal band being more orange, pnler, and edged out- 

 side with a row of black dots ; beyond, the wings are whitish, 

 with a brown line at the base of the fringes. 



There are one or two Alpine Butterflies with large white 

 spots on the underside of the wings Agriades orbitulus (De 

 Prunner) and A. atys (Hiibner) but they are allied to, if not 

 congeneric with, Nomiades semiargus (Von Rottemburg). 



GENUS CYANIRIS. 



CyaniriS) Dalman. K. Vet. Acad. Handl. Stockholm, xxxiii. 

 pp. 63, 94 (i 8 1 6) ; Scudder, Syst. Rev. Amer. Butterflies, 

 p. 34 (1872) ; Moore, Lepid. Ceylon, i. p. 74(1881). 



Species of this genus are found in almost all parts of the 

 world, except South America and Australia. Many are very 

 closely allied, and the greater number are of a rather pale blue 

 in both sexes, with broad dark borders in the female. The 

 under surface is usually bluish-white with numerous black 

 spots, and rarely with any traces of a sub-marginal orange 

 band. The type is 



THE AZURE BLUE. CYANIRIS ARGIOLUS. 



(Plate XLIX. Figs, i, 3 $ Fig. 2 ? .) 



Papilio argiolus, Linn. Syst. Nat. (ed. x.) i. p. 483, no. 153 

 (1758); id. Faun. Suec. p. 284(1761); Herbst, Naturs. 

 Schmett. xi. pi. 310, figs. 4-6 (1804). 



Papilio cleobis, Sulzer, Gescli. Ins. pi. 18, figs. 13, 14 (1776); 

 Esper, Schmett. i. (i) p. 360, pi. 40, fig. 3 (1778 ?); i. (2) 

 p. 27, pi. 54, figs. 4, b (1780). 



