PLEBEIUS ARGUS. 209 



25th, but all had died by March 30th (Wood). Rayward states that, 

 in confinement, ? s laid ova profusely all over the bunch of furze given 

 them, as well as sparingly on the muslin covering of the cage, none 

 low down ; Newman states that, in captivity, the 2 s he has kept for 

 eggs, laid most freely, thrusting their ova into the cracks of a box, 

 whilst, if given muslin two or three times folded, they thrust the 

 ova between the folds. It would appear that they prefer to lay on 

 comparatively dry materials, and not on leaves. The fact, however, 

 seems to remain, that there is practically nothing known of the egg- 

 laying of this species in nature, although Torka records (Zeits. Natur. 

 Ver. Posen, 1905, p. 8) that, on July 17th, 1905, he observed a $ lay a 

 bluish-green egg near a bud, in the hollow channel of a new shoot of 

 Sarothamhus scoparius, about 1 p.m. The egg-stage lasts from June, 

 July, or August, until the last week in February, or the first week in 

 March, those noted above as laid on Lotus corniculatus commenced to hatch , 

 as already stated, about February 22nd, when two young larvas were 

 observed, and two dead ones ; brought into a warm room, six or 

 eight more hatched within a few hours ; on February 23rd, another 

 dozen hatched (Chapman). 



Ovum. — The egg is very like the wintering egg of Agriades coridon, 

 in having a very flat top and bottom, and the sides rounded, of course, 

 but still more nearly perpendicular than that description might 

 suggest. It is 0'66mm. across, and, of this, the flat top and bottom 

 are - 57mm. and 0-60mm., the bulge being only the difference, viz., 

 0-09mm. to 0'06mm. This is to the outside of the projections of the 

 white coating, not the true egg simply. Like the egg of A. coridon, 

 the top is flat by the failing of the pillars at the angles of the network, 

 but the area over which they are wanting is only 0-42mm. across, the 

 pillars outside this only reach to the same level, so that the egg below 

 must decline a little, though the visible surface is quite plane. The micro- 

 pylar depression (i.e., the minute central circle without adventitious 

 coat) is 0-06mm. across. It is, in fact, hardly a depression, but it is 

 surrounded by a definite margin of white material ; it is a little 

 irregular in its margin, but may be described as consisting of four circles 

 of cells, that is eight cells across the 0'06mm. just noted, or each 

 cell about 0*008mm. in diameter ; they are like circular cells, the 

 outer circle laid down first, the next above it, and so on, so that each 

 cell has the outer margin circular, the inner angular, and the circular 

 portions of the inner margins concave ; the inner cells are smaller, and 

 are five or six in number, and somewhat pear-shaped ; no micropylar 

 openings are detected. The irregularity consists in the rows or circles of 

 cells being fewer on one side than another. The cells of the top, outside 

 the micropylar area, are not so sharply divided, as in A. coridon, into 

 an inner (0 # 42mm. across, as noted above) set without columns at angles, 

 and an outer with them, but they show no certain definite transition, so 

 that the measurement given (0*42mm.) must be taken as only approxi- 

 mate, since it assumes a special line where there is none, and which one 

 may locate differently on different views ; still something like a 

 central area of 0-33mm. is without columns, whilst at 0*50mm. they 

 are well-marked. The cells themselves get gradually larger from the 

 centre outward — 0-01 5mm. next the micropylar area, to 0-05mm. at 

 the margin and sides. They have an irregular, engine-turned pattern, 

 but so far broken that the cells are hexagons rather than rhomboids, 



