70 



double brooded. It is found in May and August, in many parts of Europe, 

 but is local and not very common, frequenting grassy woods and hills, espec- 

 ially on a limestone soil. It is almost absent from the plains of Northern 

 Germany, and there is no trustworthy record of its occurrence in Britain since 

 the time of Lewin. 



POLYOMMATUS ICARUS. 

 Common Blue. 



ICARUS, Rott. Icarus, the son of Dsedalus, who flying with his father 

 from Crete with artificial wings, flew too high, whereby the sun melted his 

 wings, and he fell into the sea, which from him was called the Icarian Sea. 



This species varies in the expansion of the wings from three quarters of an 

 inch to one inch and five lines. 



The male has the upper surface of the wings of a lilac blue. The form of 

 the female most frequently met with is brown, much suffused with blue ; and 

 has a series of distinct fulvous crescent-shaped spots near the hind-margin of 

 all the wings, forming a wavy line. The fore-wings of the female have a 

 black discoidal spot, and the hind- wings have a marginal row of black spots 

 edged with white on one side, and having the fulvous spots on the other. 

 Both sexes have white fringes, but they are not intersected by the wing rays, 

 as in Corydon and Adonis. The underside is of a pale grey or pale brown 

 colour with distinct black spots in white rings, and a row of distinct fulvous 

 crescent-shaped spots round the hind-margin. 



The varieties of this species are innumerable, both in size, form, and colour, 

 some of the females have the fore-wings very much rounded at the tip, others 

 somewhat acute ; the hind-margin of the fore-wings is frequently spotted with 

 white, and the disc sometimes has a round white dot with a central black spot. 

 some specimens are remarkably clear, and so transparent that the ocelli on 

 the underside of the wings are plainly observable on the upper. Some females 

 have the fringe entirely brown, and others quite white ; some have the upper 

 surface of the wings nearly as blue as that of the males, with a black central 

 spot ; whilst others are plain brown, without the least vestige of blue. The 

 number of ocelli also varies greatly. Specimens occur occasionally that are 

 true hermaphrodites, having the wings on one side male and on the other 

 female. A specimen is in Mr. Gregson's collection which has the fore-wings 

 male, and the hind-wings female. A very extraordinary one has the left side 

 male and the right side female, except that about two-thirds of the inner por- 

 tion of the fore-wing is of the male colour, leaving a stripe along the costa of 

 the usual colour of the female, 



