9° 



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 OF TROPICAL BUTTERFLIES. 



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



brood ; 5, Chrysalis of same. 



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

 Of 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. 



