9 o 



INSECTS. 



wings in the male sex of various shades of blue ; those of the female, on the other 

 hand, being usually brown, shot with a bluish or purple tinge. The larvae are 

 wood-louse-shaped, and feed mainly on grasses of various kinds. The common 

 blue (L. alexis) is one of the most abundant of British butterflies, whose white- 

 fringed, pale blue upper side and speckled under side, in the male, are familiar to 



GROUP OP TROPICAL BUTTERFLIES. 



1, Scarce swallow-tail, with larva and chrysalis ; 2, Map-butterfly, spring brood ; 3, Larv* ; 4, Summer 



brood ; 5, Chrysalis of same. 



everyone. The male is figured on the top right corner of the coloured Plate, 

 the many blues found in England, such as the silver-stud, the chalk-hill, the 

 holly blue, and the little or Bedford blue, the Clifden blue (L. adonis) the azure 

 blue of many authors is the most beautiful. It occurs not infrequently, though 

 locally, upon the Chalk downs of the southern coasts, and in some other localities. 

 A figure of the male is given in the illustration on p. 89. The wings are of a 

 much brighter blue than those of L. alexis. 



