AGR1ADES THETIS. 327 



a part of the hindwings, but these are not so beautiful as the 

 others, in which a splendid bright blue covers all the four wings, 

 and the black shade only borders the costa of the forewings as a broad 

 streak. Besides this the hindwings are bordered with a row of beauti- 

 ful cinnabar-red lunular spots, below each of which lies a black dot ; 

 this border is continued on the forewings, although indistinctly, and 

 the black dots are absent. The outer border (fringe) is white with 

 blackish spots. The female is quite dark brow T n above in some, and 

 only scaled slightly w T ith blue. The wings are, as in the male, bordered 

 with lunular spots, but they are here not such a beautiful cinnabar- 

 red as in the male, but only orange-yellow. These run in some 

 specimens round all the wrings, in others only round the hindwings, 

 in some these orange spots on the hindwings have a beautiful bright 

 blue border to their upper edges. On the underside both sexes have 

 similar markings, only the ground colour is in the female somewhat 

 darker. Altogether this butterfly appears beneath very similar to P. 

 coridon, which I have already mentioned above. If one, therefore, 

 observes the figure which Kleemann, in his Beitrage, taf. 14, fig. 4, 

 has given of the underside of that butterfly, one will easily be able 

 to imagine the markings on the underside of the butterfly now 

 described, except that, in this, the ground colour is not so light a grey, 

 but more brownish -grey. This butterfly is rather rare in this district. 

 It appears only in gardens, and in the month of August (von 

 Rottemburg, Naturf., vi., no. 11, p. 24). This is followed by Papilio 

 Plebeius Buralis bellaryus. On the upperside, this butterfly exhibits 

 the brightest and most beautiful blue of all the Argus butterflies. The 

 blue colour occupies the whole of the four wings, and is of such a 

 dazzling blue, and such a beautiful lustre, that it is impossible 

 to do it full justice in a painting. The fringe of all four wings is 

 white, marked with blackish spots, as in the last species (Papilio 

 thetis). On the underside this butterfly resembles P. coridon, and, 

 therefore, need not be described. The butterfly is very scarce in this 

 neighbourhood (Landsberg-on-the-Warte). It appears in gardens at 

 the beginning of June. I do not know whether the other sex may 

 not be brown on the upperside as in the other species of Argus, 

 but I am inclined to suppose so (von Rottemburg, Naturf., vi., no. 12, 

 p. 25). 



Imago. — 28mm. -38mm. — g . All the wings of a most brilliant 

 glossy blue; the $ brown, often shaded with blue, with orange 

 crescents surrounding a series of marginal black spots ; the fringes 

 of both sexes white, ticked with black. Underside $ forewings dark 

 grey, with a central discoidal spot, a submedian transverse row of 

 seven spots, and two basal spots, all black, edged with white ; the 

 hindwings dark grey-brown, the base strongly scaled with metallic- 

 green or -blue, a curved submedian row of nine black spots, three or 

 four basal spots, all edged with white, a linear discoidal spot often 

 entirely w r hite ; all the wings with a row of marginal ocellations, 

 edged with orange lunules. 



Sexual dimorphism. — The sexual colour difference is most marked, 

 the $ s, as already noted, of a most brilliant blue ; the $ s brown, 

 more or less scaled with blue, and with marginal orange crescents ; 

 the most extreme forms of the $ are almost as blue as the J s, but 

 show the orange lunules characteristic of the 2 on the upper margin. 



