BLUES. 



of the inquiry peculiarly agreeable to me, 

 because it evinces perfect independence of 

 thought At page 57 of the "Annual Report 

 and Transactions of the Plymouth Institu- 

 tion," Mr. Reading, the eminent Plymouth 

 naturalist, after considering the question in all 

 its bearings, disposes of it thus : " A careful 

 comparison of the forms of the imago long 

 since convinced me that Lyccena Medon, Sal- 

 macis, and Artaxerxis were forms of one 

 species." My own opinion as originally ex- 

 pressed remains unaltered, but I conceive that 

 such an opinion by no means dispenses with 

 the necessity of distinguishing the three 

 phases as clearly as I am able. I shall, there- 

 fore, describe each phase, race, or variety 

 separately, as I have done in the case of 

 Davus and Rothlicbii, being satisfied that I 

 have done my duty in expressing without 

 urging my opinion, that the three phases 

 constitute but a single species. 



The upper figure represents Medon, the second 

 Salmacis (male), and the lower Artaxerxes 



41. BROWN ARGUS. All the wings are dark 

 sepia-brown on the upper side, the foi-e wings 

 having a median, linear, transverse, obscure, 

 discoidal black spot, and all the wings having 

 a series of orange-brown spots parallel with 

 the hind margin ; the fringe is spotted. The 

 under side is slatey-gray in the males, fulvous- 



brown in the females, with seven black spots 

 in the fore wings and eleven in the hind wings, 

 all of them having a white circumscription ; 

 there is also a series of orange-red spots 

 parallel with the hind margin of all the wings. 

 Each of these is connected with a crescentic 

 black spot above and an amorphous black spot 

 below ; it is also enclosed in an imperfectly- 

 defined white circumscription ; below the 

 middle of the wing, and extending towards 

 the hind marginal series of compound spots, 

 is a vague and indistinctly-defined sub-median 

 white blotch. 



Obs. The specific name of Medon for the 

 Brown Argus was given by Hufnagel in 1774, 

 and has been adopted by Esper and Conti- 

 nental entomologists generally, but not by our 

 countryman Lewin, who believed it identical 

 with the Papilio Idas of Linnaeus, nor by 

 Ha worth, who calls it Idas, although perfectly 

 aware that the Idas of Linnaeus was the female 

 of the Common Blue. Mr. Stephens changed 

 the n^me to Agestis, evidently on the supposed 

 ground of priority ; but I think this also a 

 mistake, and revert to the earliest name. 



LIFE HISTORY. At page 6211 of the "Zoo- 

 logist" for 1858, Mr. H. J. Harding says : "I 

 discovered the caterpillarof Medon abouteight 

 years ago, and have taken it every year when 

 on the Deal coast. . . . It is found on 

 and under the hemlock storksbill (Erodium 

 cicutarium), which grows here in large patches 

 or beds in many places apart from other 

 herbage ; and it is from this cause that the 

 caterpillars are so easily found : having no 

 legs, like many other caterpillars, they cannot 

 feed on the tops, but on pulling aside the 

 branches of the storksbill, the caterpillars are 

 found on the sand beneath them." Having 

 received some of the caterpillars in question, 

 and others having been sent to Mn Logan, I 

 believe we both immediately arrived at the 

 conclusion that they were the caterpillars of 

 a beetle. Such was certainly the case in 

 some instances, as fully established by rearing 

 the perfect beetle from them, both in Edin- 

 burgh and in London ; and such an inference 

 might fairly be drawn from Mr. Harding's 

 description, "having no legs." The truth of 



