THE ADONIS BLUE. 171 



with the exception of the orange-spotted borders, is almost as 

 blue as that of the male. This is a parallel aberration to that 

 of the Chalk Hill Blue known as syngrapha, but it seems to be 

 somewhat rarer in this country. 



Figures of the early stages will be found on Plate 111. 



The egg is greenish-white, becoming rather greener in tint 

 towards the top, which is depressed ; the netting is whitish and 

 shining, and somewhat rougher on the sides than towards and 

 on the top. 



Buckler describes the full-grown caterpillar as deep, full 

 green in colour, covered with tiny black speckles, bearing little 

 black bristles, which are longest on the dorsal humps and on the 

 yellow-edged ridge above the spiracles ; on the top of each of 

 the eight pairs of dorsal humps is a deep bright yellow longi- 

 tudinal dash, somewhat wider behind than in front ; these 

 dashes form in effect two yellow stripes interrupted by the 

 deeply sunk segmental divisions ; the line along the back is 

 darker than the ground colour, and the spiracles are black. 

 The head is dark brown, and there are two yellow dots on the 

 first ring of the body near the head. 



The chrysalis, when first formed, is greenish-brown with the 

 wing-cases greenish, the whole afterwards becomes ochreous ; 

 the thorax and wing-cases are rather glossy, and the body is 

 slightly hairy. Buckler states that some of his caterpillars 

 buried themselves about half an inch deep in the loose soil, and 

 formed a weak sort of cocoon ; others, not having been supplied 

 with soil that could be so easily penetrated, retired under the 

 stems of their food-plants, and in angles formed by the 

 branching stems spun a few weak threads to keep themselves 

 in place. 



The food-plant is the horseshoe vetch (Hippocrepzs comosa). 

 From eggs laid in August, the caterpillars appear to hatch 

 towards the end of September, but do not feed up until the 

 spring. Butterflies from these caterpillars are on the wing 



