274 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Upper side, female type. — Brown or black-brown, with black 

 discoidal spot on fore wings, sometimes also visible on hind 

 wings, and with more or less distinct hind marginal row of 

 orange ocellated spots on hind wings : — 



1. Variegated with white. 



(a) Discoidal spots edged with white. 



(b) Hind wings with one or sometimes two interrupted rows 

 of white spots or dashes between the hind margin and base of 

 the wing. 



2. Variegated with blue. 



{a) Hind wings with blue spots or dashes, sometimes wholly 

 blue ; the fore wings also less commonly with spots or dashes of 

 blue, and sometimes with a central splash of blue, the distri- 

 bution of colour in this latter case resembling that of dark 

 forms of Lyccena argiolas. This form, though apparently not 

 uncommon elsewhere, I have not come across here before this 

 year. 



{h) All the wings blue as in the male, but of a richer colour, 

 with or without black discoidal spots, the black hind margin 

 varying in width, as in the male, but always with orange 

 ocellated spots along hind margin of hind wings, as in typical 

 female. This is the variety Syngraplia, and it is figured in 

 Dr. Lang's 'Butterflies of Europe,' plate xxvi. fig. 7. I found 

 this variety here first in 1870, though it no doubt occurred here 

 before my time ; but I have only lately tried to obtain a series. 

 Last year, when there was favourable weather, while L. corydon 

 was on the wing, I caught thirty specimens of this variety ; this 

 year, in unfavourable weather, I only obtained twelve. 



One female caught last year is a small specimen with blue fore 

 wings, and hind wings normal, with few blue scales, reversing the 

 ordinary course of variation in this species. One female caught 

 this year has the veins of the hind wings blue, the intervening 

 spaces being normal colour. In the usual form of partial blue 

 variation the veins remain black, while the intervening spaces are 

 blue. Another female caught this year is of a dull black colour, 

 with white-edged discoidal spot on fore and hind wings, and with 

 indistinct greyish dashes from the hind margin to the base of 

 hind wings. The under side of this specimen is creamy white, 

 wanting the basal spots on fore wings, and several of the spots 

 on hind wings, the other spots, though reduced in size, showing 

 up very distinctly against the light background. 



Under side, male. — This does not vary much as to the 

 number of spots, though the spots often vary much in size. 

 Occasionally some of the spots are duplicated, occasionally some 

 are confluent. The variety without basal spots on the fore wings 

 is not uncommon, and the discoidal spot on the hind wings often 

 lacks the black centre. 



