BLUES. 



135 



Obs. I have seen neither the caterpillar 

 nor chrysalis of this little butterfly, but the 

 concurrent testimony of Hubner, Duponchel, 

 and others, induces me to place confidence in 

 the foregoing description. 



TIME OF APPEARANCE. The butterfly is 

 on the wing in June. 



LOCALITIES. Mr. Birchall reports Alsusio 

 be very common in Gal way, and also to occur 

 near Belfast and on the Portmarnock sand- 

 hills, and Mr. Fetherstonehaugh takes it at 

 B-ay, in the county Wicklow. In Scotland 

 it appears to be very local. Mr. Birchall re- 

 ports it from Arran, Ardiossan, and Oban. 

 Dr. Boswell Syme finds it by the railway at 

 Seafield, and also between Kirkaldy and 

 Kingshorn ; Dr. Buchanan White says it has 

 occurred abundantly near Perth at several 

 places, as at Broxy, but of late years it has 

 been very scarce ; it seems confined to the 

 lowland part of the country, although it 

 occurs in all parts of Scotland, both east and 

 west, and as far north as Forres ; the dates of 

 capture in Scotland are June 10 in 1858, May 

 31 in 1859, and June 15 in 1867. In England 

 it seems to be widely, but not generally, 

 distributed ; it does not appear in my lists for 

 Berkshire, Cornwall, Cheshire, Hertfordshire, 

 Middlesex, Norfolk, Northampton, Notting- 

 ham, Shropshire, Surrey, or Warwickshire, 

 but is present in all the other county lists. 



47. Azure Blue (Lycczna Argiolus). Male. 



Female. 



47. AZURE BLUE. The colour of the wings 

 in the male is purplish blue with a narrow 

 black hind-marginal border. In the female 



there is a broad hind-marginal black band on 

 the fore wings, and a narrow black hind- 

 marginal border in the hind wings, and just 

 within this is a series of six transversely 

 oblong black spots. The under side of all the 

 wings is silvery blue-gray ; in the fore wings 

 there is a transverse discoidal black streak 

 half-way between the base and tip, and half- 

 way between this streak and the tip are five, 

 and sometimes six, transversely oblong black 

 spots : the hind wings have a transverse 

 discoidal black streak in the centre, and nine, 

 ten, or eleven black spots scattered over the 

 disk: the fringe is white, slightly interrupted 

 in the fore wings, with smoky black spots. 



Obs. There is no series of orange spots 

 parallel with the hind margin of the hind 

 wings, and the white submedian blotch is also 

 absent. 



LIFE HISTORY. I regret to feel my inability 

 to give, with confidence, any particulars of 

 the life history of this species. I believe it 

 is pretty well established that there are two 

 broods in the year, and that the EGGS which 

 produce the first brood of caterpillars are laid 

 on the blossoms of the holly (Ilexaquifolium); 

 and the date of the flowering of that tree fixes 

 the date of ovipositiou Messrs. Humphreys 

 and Westwood describe the CATERPILLAR as 

 pubescent, and of a greenish yellow colour, with 

 a bright green line down the back, the head 

 and legs being black : the CHRYSALIS, they add, 

 is smooth, brown and green, with a dark dorsal 

 line. My own opinion (expressed very many 

 years ago) that this species migrates, in its 

 alternate generations, from the holly to the 

 ivy, and, vice versd, from the ivy to the holly, 

 was perhaps little more than one of those 

 crude guesses in which all young entomolo- 

 gists indulge ; still there are some facts ascer- 

 tained respecting this insect which favour the 

 idea. At page 98 of the fourth volume of the 

 " Entomologist," we find that in May of the 

 present year Mr. Hedworth observed the in- 

 sect both flying about and settling on the 

 hollies at Gibside, near Newcastle. At page 

 112 of the same volume, Mr. Perkins observed 

 it abundantly on laurustinus ; on the same 

 page Mr. Clifford says, " the flowers of the 



