388 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



astrarche, were frequent visitors to his garden at Eeigate Hill (which 

 was near their breeding-grounds), where they particularly favoured the 

 cultivated species of Centaurea (" sweet sultans"). On a hot sunny 

 day (August 19th, 1907), at Weissenstein, on the Albula, we observed 

 a splendid $ sunning on a scabious flower, its wings wide open so 

 that the sun shone fully on them. We have seen them in numbers at 

 Digne, in the hot sun, apparently almost intoxicated with the nectar 

 of the flowers of thistles, lucerne, thyme, Eupatorium, and endless 

 other attractive species of plants ; at any rate, they appeared to do 

 literally nothing except feed, they flew less, and seemed here to be 

 much less assertive and pugnacious than either Polyounnatus icarus or 

 Aqriades coridon, although, if disturbed, they more than held their 

 •own against all comers. Apart from the pairing-habits, which are 

 quite distinctive, the sexes appear to have certain amusements in 

 common with other blue butterflies; the £ flies up some little distance 

 into the air, the $ following her, but remaining a few T inches behind 

 her, then pressing her on as it were, he follows until she comes down 

 and settles, when he takes up a position just behind her, nor does he 

 appear to move until she again gets restless, and recommences her 

 flight. It has occasionally been reported that the $ of this species 

 has been seen in cop. with 2 P- icarus, e.g., Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., 

 1886, p. xxxi, etc. ; on September 11th, 1909, we w T atched a $ follow 

 up a ? P. icarus as she moved slowly about in the herbage, hovering 

 over her in a very suspicious manner, but finally flying away without 

 making any attempt to pair with her. Verity notes (Bull. Ent. Soc. 

 Ital., 1905, p. 138) that, at the end of August, and early September, 

 1901, he saw the species near Lucca, in extraordinary abundance ; it 

 was, he says, a marvellous spectacle to see hundreds and hundreds of 

 these brilliant gems settled on the flowers and foliage, whilst as many 

 were on the wing, now disappearing a moment in shade, and reappear- 

 ing in sunshine, whirling round five or six at a time, and creating an 

 effect on the eye recalling that of the fireflies in the corn during the 

 beautiful nights of June. The $ s, when sunning, hold the wings 

 generally considerably above the horizontal, almost as do the $ s, 

 sitting with the fore wings well forward, and the hindwings, pulled far 

 back, the inner margin of the latter extending under the abdomen, so 

 that there is a large angle between the fore- and hindwings ; the fore- 

 wings, in this position, usually have the inner margin slightly raised 

 above the level of the hindwings, and are somewhat curved convexly 

 between the middle of the wing and the outer margin. They exhibit 

 the same habit as the $ s, of moving the hindwings alternately when 

 thus at rest, haunting the same flowers for nectar. When apparently 

 searching for a spot to deposit an egg, the $ flies a short distance, 

 about 10 or 12 inches at each movement, crawls over a variety of 

 plants other than the real foodplant, projects the antenna* well in front, 

 and keeps them moving alternately. When feeding during the day, 

 both sexes sit with the forewings thrown well forward over the head, 

 and with only a small angle between them and the hindwings, the 

 antennas held well in front at a wide angle, but, when resting, the 

 forewings are pulled low down between the hindwings, and the antenna) 

 thrown up and extended from one another almost at right angles ; at 

 this Lime, the costa of each forewing is pulled very close down to the 

 costa of the hindwings, whilst the inner margins of the latter are folded 





