164 THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



shown in Figs. 10 and 11. The size of this butterfly ranges from 

 one inch and a half to three-quarters of an inch. The large 

 specimens at the bottom of the plate are from Scotland. 



Scotch and Irish males often have some black spots on the 

 outer margin of the hind wings, as in Fig. 2, but this is from 

 Ventnor in the Isle of Wight. The female is sometimes of a 

 uniform brown coloration, devoid of blue scales, and, with the 

 exception of slight traces of orange on the outer margin of the 

 hind wings, entirely without marking. On the other hand, this 

 sex is sometimes almost as blue as the male in colour (var. 

 I ca'rulai), but the discal spot, outer marginal borders, and 

 orange markings arc present. Occasionally the orange spots 

 give place to yellow ones. The discal spot on the fore wings 

 may be encircled with bluish-white scales, and now and then 

 this spot on all the wings is surrounded very distinctly with 

 bluish-white. I have seen the latter form from Durham and 

 Ireland only, but it probably occurs in other parts of the 

 kingdom. 



Quite a number of gynandrous specimens of this species 

 have been recorded, some of them being male on the right side 

 and female on the left, in others the reverse was the case. 



On the under side the male is greyish and the female 

 brownish, consequently the white rings around the black spots 

 show up more distinctly in the latter sex. A not uncommon 

 aberration is without spots between the discal spot and the base 

 of the fore wing ; this is known as icartnus. Another form that 

 occurs fairly often has the lower basal spot united with the last 

 spot of the outer series, as in Fig. 9, this is ab. arcua, and a 

 modification, with the junction bar-like instead of arched, has 

 I been named melanotoxa. Very rarely the whole of the under | 

 I side, ex cept the outer margins, is free of spots (Plate 119). A I 

 specimen exhibiting aberration in this direction is shown on 

 Plate 118, Fig. 6, whilst Figs. 1 and 3 show modifications of 

 what is known as the streaked form. 



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