48 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES, 



oblique, lower discocellular erect, discoidal nervule from their middle ; discoidal 

 cell short ; second median nervule emitted before the end of the cell, first median 

 at one-half before its end ; submedian and internal nervures straight. (Moore.) 



Of this de Niceville remarks (Butts. India, iii., p. 136) : " The costal 

 nervure, especially in the $ , is very short, and anastomoses with the 

 first subcostal nervure for some little distance ; the second subcostal is 

 emitted rather nearer to the base of the first than to that of the upper 

 discoidal nervule ; the third subcostal originates nearer to the base of 

 the upper discoidal than to the apex of the wing ; there is no upper 

 discocellular nervule ; the middle discocellular is straight, outw T ardly 

 oblique, the lower discocellular also straight, but inwardly oblique." 



Our ignorance of the detailed structure of the early stages of the 

 species of this group leaves us in darkness as to the generic pecu- 

 liarities of the egg, larval, and pupal stages, except so far as they 

 have been worked out by Scudder (antea, pp. 46-47). 



Scudder says (Butts. New Engl., ii., p. 908) that the Everid cater- 

 pillar is elliptical in form, flatter and more elongated than the 

 Cyanirid (i.e., Celastrinid) larva, with a flatter terminal segment, of a 

 greenish colour, with a dark dorsal stripe and many oblique lateral 

 lines. Of the pupa he adds (op. cit., p. 909) that " the chrysalids are 

 longer and slenderer than those of the Cyanirids (i.e., Celastrinids), 

 being nearly four times longer than broad, the abdomen but slightly 

 more elevated than the thorax, and the whole body covered with long 

 distant hairs, by which they may readily be distinguished ; in colour 

 they resemble the larva3, or are darker and spotted with black." 



The imago is easily recognised by the presence of its slender 

 fringe-tail, at the tip of the lowest median nervule of the hindwing, in 

 which it resembles the Lampidid and allied genera, rather than the 

 Plebeiids with which its general structural characters incline to relate 

 it. The sexual difference is most marked, the $ s blue, the $ s 

 fuscous, although sometimes tinged with blue towards the base. 

 There is also considerable seasonal dimorphism sometimes shown, the 

 spring broods averaging less in wing-expanse than the summer brood, 

 the third or autumnal brood often not being larger than the spring 

 brood. The delicate silvery-white or silvery-blue underside with rather 

 elongated dots, resembles those of the Celastrinids and the species of 

 the allied genus Cupido more than any other " blues," and, although 

 some species have the ground colour pale brown-grey, this general 

 similarity is not altered. The presence of dark black spots above the 

 tail, surmounted above by orange, and sometimes kernelled with 

 metallic blue, reminds one rather of the Plebeiids (sens, rest.) e.g, 

 Plebeius aegon, and P. argus (argyrognomon), etc., but so marked are 

 the general features that one is not likely to mistake the Everids for 

 the allied species. Scudder says (Butts. New Engl., ii., p. 908), that 

 " beneath, the imagines are very pale brown, with faint marginal 

 markings over most of the outer border ; these markings on the hind- 

 wings are intensified in the median interspaces, forming, especially in 

 the lower one, a blackish spot surmounted by a bright lunule ; there 

 is also an extra-mesial series of blackish spots or dashes, nearly 

 straight, on the forewing, strongly tortuous on the hindwing, besides 

 a transverse dash at the tip of the cell, and, on the hindwing, a couple 

 of round spots near the base." 



Little is known of the larval habits of the species of the genus. 



