182 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



on all the wings, with slight blue shading at the base of hindwings. 

 From Odalen, in Norway, the 2 has the base of the forewings, and 

 base and disc of hindwings, blue, the orange lunules of the hindwings 

 well-developed, but faint on the forewings. A $ in the Brit. Mus. 

 coll. from Gavarnie, has the blue scaling from the base to the orange 

 lunules, the latter, however, very poorly developed on the forewing. 

 We have already noted that in var. masseyi and var. Corsica, this blue 

 shading is racial. In some places, blue-tinted 2 s are common without 

 being racial, e.g., at Delamere, where Ar'kle observes (Ent., xl., p. Ill) 

 that " some of the 2 s are beautifully shot with blue, particularly on the 

 hindwings, the nervules marked out in black ; a few of the 2 s having 

 the marginal red spots almost obliterated, whilst one specimen was of 

 an unicolorous black hue, relieved only by a few scanty blue hairs in 

 the region of the thorax." He further notes that "the marginal spots 

 and orange-red crescents are much more marked, however, in specimens 

 from Abersoch " (Ent., xxxiv., p. 105). Turner notes (Proc. South 

 Load. Ent. Soc, 1895, p. 42) that, among the $ s from Oxshott, he had 

 obtained an example with the red blotches well-developed on upper- 

 side of all four wings, others with the upperside of the hindwings 

 streaked with blue between the nervures; whilst Ashby also notes 2 s 

 splashed with blue from Oxshott. At Cuxton, the $ s of var. cretacem 

 are occasionally well-scaled with blue, but the blue is more distinctly 

 violet (ciolaxcens) than is usual in the var. masseyi, although in this 

 latter, two very marked shades occur caerxlesccn.s and riolascens. 

 Sweeting records a " blue 2 " from the Paignton district, and 

 Norgate that he captured some 2 s suffused with blue, and one 

 2 with bright orange spots on the upperside of all the wings, 

 at Tuddenham. Bankes says that, in Dorset, the 2 s appear 

 never to exhibit any blue colouring except for a few scattered blue 

 scales occasionally to be seen at the base of the forewing. 

 Lockyer records a 2 taken in the. New Forest, July 1873. as 

 large as a large $ , with the basal portions of the wing blue, as 

 in the J , with the wing-rays brown, and also wanting the 

 series of orange spots on the upper surface. Lowe notes (in litt.) 

 that, in Guernsey, there are four forms of the 2 ■— (1) entirely fuscous, 

 (2) with orange lunules on upper wings (=ab. anterocroceus in 

 series supra), (3) with orange lunules on all the wings, (4) scaled with 

 blue as in var. Corsica, but finer than the latter ; this form is rare. 

 Chapman notes among his var. casaicus (captured in north-west 

 Spain) a, 2 with a, blue border (caernleomaryinatus) to the red 

 spots of the hindwing, hut without any blue on the disc. A remark- 

 able aberration of the 2 scaled with blue is figured by Milliere 

 (Ann. Soc. Linn. Lyon, L865) with white antemarginal band, the under- 

 side being almost devoid of spots. The most beautiful specimen 

 belonging to the "blue" ? group that has come under our notice, is 

 one in the Brit. Museum coll.. labelled " Mutzell coll., Berlin."' It 



• The specimens from this collection, which came to the British Museum 

 coll., through the " Leech coll.," are absolutely worthless for most scientific 

 purposes, us they have evidently come from far distant parts of the Pal.'earctic 

 area, and bear no data, except the same absurd and useless legend "Mutzell coll., 

 Berlin." It is most unfortunate that a very large number of these specimens have 

 found their way into the colb-cfion at all, especially us this is often at the expense 

 of really historical examples, which happened to lie in rather less fine condition. 



