THE COMMON BLUE. 163 



rather less frequently seen in the Midland counties, but it is 

 more or less common in some parts of Derbyshire, Yorkshire, 

 and Lancashire. 



The intermediate form, salmacis and its modifications, is 

 found in the neighbourhood of Richmond, Yorks, and thence 

 northward to the Scottish border. 



Var. artaxerxes occurs in Scotland from Roxburgh to 

 Aberdeenshire on the east, and from Dumfries to the Clyde 

 on the west. Kane records four specimens from Co. Galway, 

 and these are all that are known of the species from Ireland. 

 This form, together with the var. salmacis, are not found any- 

 where outside the United Kingdom, and, it may be added, 

 the latter appears to be getting scarce — at least, in some of its 

 old haunts in Durham. 



The species is distributed throughout the Palasarctic Region, 

 except the Polar parts. 



The Common Blue (Lyccena icariis). 



The male is blue, w r ith either a tinge of violet or mauve in its 

 composition. Sometimes, though rarely, it assumes the brighter 

 shade of the Adonis Blue. All the wings are very narrowly 

 edged with black on the outer margins ; the veins are generally 1 , 

 pale, shining blue, sometimes becoming blackish towards the 

 outer margins, and occasionally continued into the fringes, but j 

 not to their tips. The female is most often brown, with some 

 blue scales on the basal area of all the wings ; there is a black 

 discal spot on the fore wings, and a series of orange crescents 

 before a row of black spots on the outer margin ; the hind 

 wings have an outer marginal row of black spots, edged 

 outwardly with white and inwardly with orange. 



On Plate 106, Fig. 1 represents a typical male, and Fig. 3 a 

 typical female, whilst the normal under sides of the sexes are 



