348 BEITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



the upperside is entirely sky-blue, with a silvery sheen, so that neither the costal 

 area nor, particularly, the nervures, are browned. A margin of crimson spots 

 surmount the black marginal punctuation, enhancing the appearance of this 

 charming butterfly, which I distinguish under the name coelestis, n. var. This 

 name applies exclusively to the blue forms of bellargus met with from la Vendee 

 to the neighbourhood of Bordeaux, along the littoral, and extending relatively 



only a very short distance inland This western France form of the 



? mariscolore of bellargus, is well-known to the lepidopterists of this country, and 

 exists in their collections. Trimoulet, in his Cat. des Lep. du dept. Gironde, 

 p. 15, observes that " the ceronus of the Gironde is remarkable for the brilliance 

 of the blue colour which it attains, surpassing even that of the <? bellargus," but 

 he goes no further . . . .At Auzay, Dompierre, and Angouleme, the var. 

 coelestis is always similarly characterised (Oberthur). 



The form appears to have been first noticed by Pierret (Ann. Soc. 

 Ent. France, ii., p. 119) who, in 1833, states that it appeared to be 

 very common near Bordeaux, whence it had been sent in large numbers 

 by M. Auguste. He notes an example taken by Bellier in Seine-et- 

 Marne at Gurcy, which differed in no way from those sent from 

 Bordeaux. Gerhard, in 1853, figured a wholly blue ? with marginal 

 orange spots, calling it the $ ceronus, figuring as 2 ceronus (fig. 2c) a 

 quite ordinary 5 of the species. Oberthur suggests the restriction of 

 the name to the Western France examples, but Trautmann notes (Int. 

 Ent. Zeits. Guben, ii., p. 162) a bred specimen from Jena without a 

 trace of a brown scale on the uppersides, and Briggs records (Proc. 

 Sth. Lond. Ent. Soc, 1894, p. 77) a 2 , taken by Austin, at Folkestone, 

 in 1891, in which the whole of the wings are of the $ coloration, 

 except the hind marginal row of ocelli ; this example was described 

 (Ent. Iiec, ii., 273) as having merely a row of black spots inside the 

 fringes of the upperside of the forewings, and a row of bright red spots 

 on the margin of the upperside of the hindwings. Blachier, compar- 

 ing coelestis (received from Oberthur) with ceronus, notes (in litt.) the 

 following details : 



1. The costal margin of coelestis is not black or shaded with black, but blue 

 like the rest of the wings, sometimes powdered with black or grey scales ; now and 

 then the nervures adjacent to the costal border are silvery-white. 



2. The surface of the forewings is blue, without black or blackish, except the 

 discoidal lunule of the forewings ; a narrow black line preceding the fringe ; this 

 line in turn preceded by a shade in which the black spots, often well-marked, are 

 situated, either resting on the marginal line or isolated ; these black spots are 

 surmounted with crimson spots, very marked on the hindwings, weak on the fore- 

 wings ; these red spots are not surmounted with black chevrons as in the ceronus 

 of collections. 



3. The blue of coelestis is extremely brilliant, and recalls the tint of the cT 

 with its various shades. 



6. ab. radiata, Gaschet, "Bull. Soc. Ent. Fr.," p. lxiii (1877).— ? . The 

 nervures of the hindwings of a brilliant azure blue, the interneural spaces of a deep 

 blue, encroaching on the black, and radiating in the direction of the outer margin ; 

 just before the marginal spots the dark tint is effaced, and the azure blue alone 

 remains. The black marginal spots are adorned with yellow lunules, as in the ab. 

 ceronus. The forewings show the same characteristics as the hindwings, but 

 rather less prominently ; the tints are a little deeper. Floirac, near Bordeaux. 

 Kare (Gaschet). 



One wonders whether this is not the oldest description of the 

 coelestis form, "Bordeaux" being particularly noted by Oberthur as 

 one of the localities for coelestis in his description of the latter. 



i. ab. irregularis, n. ab. Adonis ab., Girard, " Ann. Soc. Ent. France," ser. 

 4, v., pp. 111-114, pi. ii., figs. 4-5 (1865). — ?. The wings showing different 

 varietal forms. 



Girard notes (Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr., ser. 4, v., pp. 111-114) a 2 , the 



