THE COMYNTAS BUTTERFLY. 275 



The blue Lucia butterfly QPolyommatus Lucia of Kirby) 

 greatly resembles the preceding, but the black border of 

 the fore wings in the female is not so broad, the fringes of 

 the wings are spotted with black, and all the wings on the 

 under side are dusky gray, with larger blackish spots, and a 

 broad blackish border behind. Mr. Kirby has described only 

 the male of this butterfly, in the fourth volume of the Fauna 

 Boreali- Americana. It is found in April and May. 



The Comyntas butterfly (Polyommatus Oomyntas of Go- 

 dart) is readily distinguished from the foregoing by having 

 a little thread-like tail on the edge of the hind wings. The 

 wings in the males are violet blue, and in the females black- 

 ish glossed with blue on the upper side, with whitish fringes ; 

 there are several blackish spots, around the hind margins, 

 and on the hind wings near the posterior margin two cres- 

 cents of a deep orange-color. The under sides of all the 

 wings are gray, with black spots encircled with white, and 

 each of the two orange-colored crescents of the hind wings 

 encloses a deep black spot encircled with silvery blue. The 

 wings expand about one inch. This butterfly is found in 

 dry woods and pastures in July and August, and the cater- 

 pillars live on the leaves of the Lespedeza, which grows in 

 those places. They are oval, convex, and downy, of a pale 

 green color with three darker green lines, the sides of the 

 body reddish, and the head black. The chrysalis, which is 

 usually fastened to a leaf, is at first pale green, but becomes 

 brownish afterwards ; it is sparingly clothed with whitish 

 hairs, and there are three rows of black dots on the back. 

 The chrysalis state lasts from nine to eleven days. 



We have several more of these small butterflies with 

 thread-like tails on their hind wings, but they differ from 

 all the preceding species in having the knobs of the antennae 

 longer and nearly cylindrical, the eyes covered with a very 

 fine down, and an oval opaque spot on the fore wings, near 

 the front margin in the males. They belong to the genus 

 Thecla. Their caterpillars are longer and flatter than those 



