PLEBEIUS ARGUS. 188 



has almost the white underside of a $ hypochiona, but the upperside, 

 although entirely pale blue, has all the appearance of a $ ; the outer 

 margin is narrowly dark inside the white fringe, and then, instead of 

 the orange lunules surrounding the marginal spots, there is a series of 

 pale wbitish marks between the darker nervures ; the hind wings are 

 similar in colour, but the small black spots forming the marginal row 

 .are edged with wbite ; the discoidals are visible on the forewings, but 

 only faintly discernible on the hindwings. This extreme blue 2 form 

 we call caerulea, n. ab. In our British examples the amount of orange 

 •on the upperside of the $ s is generally small ; there is usually a series of 

 lunules on the hindwings, weakly continued on the forewings, but 

 sometimes there are practically no traces of orange on the forewings, 

 :and occasionally it is absent on all ; whilst the strong development of 

 orange on the forewings is quite rare. Blachier notes {in litt.) 

 that the 2 s from near Geneva, and those from the Alps, are brown, 

 with the fulvous lunules present or absent. He further states, 

 that "one finds occasionally, in both sexes, that the black marginal 

 spots of the hindwings are separated from the black line that 

 ■edges the fringe, by a pure white line (one $ and one 2 from 

 Vernet-les-Bains, and one 2 from Digne)." Reverdin states (in 

 litt.) that the $ s he has, exhibit "every stage between those with 

 only weak traces of orange lunules on the hindwings, and those 

 that have them throughout the whole length of the fore- and hind- 

 wings." Hormuzaki notes (Soc. Ent., viii., p. 18) that " the 2 s from 

 Mt. Cecina, near Czernowitz, exhibit markedly, on all the wings, a 

 marginal row of distinct yellowish-red crescents up to the costa of the 

 forewings ; in other parts of the Bucovina, however, the $ s of this 

 species have no red spots on the upperside of the wings, at most some 

 black marginal spots towards the inner margin of the hindwings, 

 which are, however, often of an uniform black colour," whilst Rebel 

 observes (Lep. Balkans, pt. 1, p. 187) that " the $ s of the small form from 

 Sofia and Slivno, are sometimes of an uniform dark tint on the upper- 

 side." The Bulgarian 2 s are dark fuscous, with the orange lunules 

 w 7 ell marked on the hindwings, faint on the forewings. The lower 

 Pyrenean 2 s are rather brown, or even orange- brown, in colour, with 

 orange lunules on all the wings, a white outer edge to the marginal 

 dots of hindwings, and well-marked discoidal, reminding one of certain 

 forms of Aricia astrarche. The form bejarensis shows very marked charac- 

 ters, varying much, how T ever, in the amount of orange; most are fairly 

 well-banded, but occasional specimens are exceptionally well-provided, 

 whilst others are almost without. Gillmer observes that the 2 s from 

 Anhalt vary from pale to dark brown on the upperside, with a more or 

 less developed marginal row of orange spots ; the underside brownish - 

 grey. We have already observed that there is a very distinct difference 

 in the underside coloration of the sexes. The ground colour of the 2 

 is a brown of different shades, from a deep coffee -brown to a pale 

 brown or fawn colour, scarcely more than amber, the tint almost as 

 distinct racially as the coloration of the $ underside. One of the 

 most remarkable is the var. Corsica, the underside of the 2 of which is 

 noted by Oberthur as the tint of cafe-au-lait, rather than more decided 

 brown, the spots of the underside being also of the ground colour. 

 He also notes the pale tawny colour of the underside of the 2 of var. 

 hypochiona. We have also already stated that the orange band on the 



