CYANIRIS SEMIARGUS. 27T 



underside of the hindwings, occurs in the Taurus moun f ains ; the 9 s- 

 appear to be comparatively rare, and sometimes exhibit a mixture of 

 violet scaling on the forewings." Miss Fountaine records it (Ent.,. 

 xxxvii., pp. 79, 158) as occurring at Tchekirghe, near Broussa, between, 

 April 17th and May 20th, 1903, and rightly remarks that it is a very 

 distinct form, quite unlike var. helena from Greece, or var. antiochena 

 from Syria ; she also captured one at Amasia, in June, as well as a 

 few in the pine-forest on the old Silva Koad, near Tokat, in July. 



e. var. mesopot arnica, n. var. — t? 32mm .-33mm., 2 33mm. (2 <? s, 1 ? ). 2 £ s im 

 the British Museum coll. marked " L. bellis, Malatia, Mesopotamia, ex. Staudinger," 

 one from the " Gr.-Gr. coll.," the other from " Elwes coll," are interesting in 

 their thin grey-blue scaling, generally dull appearance, narrow black margin, pure 

 black nervures and discoidai (forewing), and white fringes. The underside has the 

 discoidals and the submedian transverse row of spots well-marked ; the faintest 

 possible pale grey crescents outlining the three faint fulvous marginal spots at anal 

 angle of hindwings; the pale grey crescents w r eakly continued along the hind- 

 margin of hindwing and anal corner of forewing. The ? , similarly labelled to the 

 <? s, is like persiea in its dark colour, blue-scaled base of all wings on upperside,. 

 white fringes, and traces of fulvous crescents at anal angle of hindwing ; the 

 spotting of the underside is like that of the J s, except that, on the hindwings, the 

 grey crescents are rather better marked. 



It will be observed that, except for the plumbeous or blue-grey- 

 scaling of the $ s, this is very like our var. intermedia. The material at 

 present obtainable is insufficient to determine whether this difference 

 of colour is aberrational or racial. 



i*. var. persiea, n. var. Bellis, Stand., " Cat.," 2nd ed., p. 14 (1871); Riihl, 

 " Pal. Gross-Schmett ," i., pp. 297, 767 (1895); Tutt, " Brit. Butts ," p, 164 (1896); 

 Staud., "Cat.," 3rd ed., p. 89. (1901).— <? 30mm.-34mm., ? 32mm.-37mm. The 

 specimens in the British Museum coll., under the name bellis, Frr., have nothing in 

 common with Freyer's form. They are almost all of the striking Persian race, 

 which shows a combination of very marked characters. It averages larger than 

 true bellis, helena, and antiochena. The S s have a very much less bright blue 

 coloration ; the margin is wider, much more suffused, and the nervures darker, as. 

 in dark European specimens ; the discoidai of the forewings well-marked. The 2 g. 

 rather larger than the d" s, dark fuscous in colour, the fringes white as in the 3 s ;. 

 the bases of all the wings more or less strongly scaled Avith blue, sometimes the 

 blue spreads over the greater part of the wing, and there are more or less distinct traces, 

 of marginal fulvous crescents towards the anal angle of the hindwing. The most 

 marked character, however, is presented by the spotting of the underside. In 

 addition to the strong development of the discoidai and the submedian transverse 

 row of spots, the margin exhibits, on both fore- and hindwings, in both sexes, am 

 almost typical arrangement of the spotting seen in Polyommatus (icarus, eras, 

 escheri, etc.), or Agriades (bellargus, etc.), the dark grey submarginal crescents,, 

 enclosing, as it were, the marginal series of marginal black dots, and somewhat 

 poorly-developed series of pale fulvous lunules, giving the race a most ordinary- 

 looking, Plebeiid-spotted, underside. Some of these specimens are unlabelled, but 

 there are four <? s and two 2 s labelled "Zell. coll.,' Astrabad (Lederer) as bellis' ;" 

 one 2 " Zell. coll., ' bellis, Tasch (Christ. ),' " evidently from Tash near Astrabad ; 

 one 3 two 2 s, " Zell. coll., ' bellis, Shahkuh (Chr.)' "; one J and one 2 " Godman- 

 Salvin coll., 'L. bellis, X. Persia, ex-Staudinger ' "; one s one 2 "Elwes coll-,, 

 'Shahkuh (Funke, 1898)'"; one 2 "Elwes coll., Shahkuh"; one 2 " Christoph 

 coll., 'Shahkuh, 24. 6. 78';" one 2 "Christoph coll., ' Hadscyabad, 7. vi. 

 1870,'" etc. 



In 1862 Staudinger erroneously referred Asia Minor examples of 

 C. semiargus to bellis, Frr. (Stett. Ent. Zt<j., 1862, p. 265), a name 

 bestowed on an entirely different European race of the species. In 

 1871, he shifted (Cat., 2nd ed., p. 14) the name to the Persian 

 race, and queried the Asia Minor examples as coming under it,, 

 noting it as " bellis, Frr., major, subtus punctis runs. Pontus,. 



