AGRIADES CORIDON. 6B 



rather smaller, viz., 0-57mm. in diameter, as against -60mm. for the 

 latter, both laid by Reigate examples in August and September. 

 Height of each 028mm. The egg of A. thetis has a very similar 

 micropylar hollow to that of A. coridon, but the network is far from 

 being so fine, can be made out with a much less magnification, and 

 is less definitely marked off from the fiat top. The cells of this top 

 are much larger than, about twice as large as, those of A. coridon ; 

 there are only five cells counted on the spiral, and the marginal raised 

 points encroach one cell further, coming right on to the top, so that, 

 whilst in the egg of A. coridon one looks, on a side view, right across 

 the " steam-rollered " plain, in that of A. thetis one cannot do 

 so, as it (as well as not being so thoroughly steam-rollered) has 

 a margin of these points rising above its surface ; otherwise the 

 side view of the egg is almost the same as that of A. coridon ; 

 taking a line of points round the egg, they are about 22 in 

 number ; they are much the same in A. coridon, but this counting- 

 is difficult to feel sure of, as the points vary a little, and are also more 

 or less diagonal, not in an accurate circle. The examples selected 

 for above notes, were well-marked ones ; it is possible to find eggs of 

 A. coridon with say nine cells in line of spiral of top, and eggs of A. thetis 

 with six, but in all cases the transition from top to side is more 

 regular in A. thetis, more abrupt in A. coridon, resulting in a much more 

 pleasing effect in the former egg. The French spring egg of A. coridon 

 is more like that of A. thetis in the upper surface having the side points 

 encroaching on it, and in the top, therefore, not being so obviously a very 

 smooth plain. The cells counted as in other instances are ten. The 

 side points are taller and thicker, as if the individual ribs ran 

 separately quite to its top (an occasional aspect in the eggs of English 

 A. coridon and A. thetis) (Chapman). 



Variation of eggs of Agriades coridon. — Eggs laid by Reigate 

 2 s measure *60mm. in diameter, and were -28mm. in height ; eggs, 

 however, laid in May at Ste. Maxime, and, therefore, by the spring- 

 brood (to produce summer imagines as a second brood, a brood that 

 does not occur in England), are nearly -70mm. in diameter. It is not 

 possible to say Avhether this difference is between spring and summer 

 eggs, or between the eggs of the English and South France races 

 (Chapman). 



Habits of larva. — Chapman observes (March 5th, 1910) that 

 some 220 young larva that hatched between February 22nd-26th were 

 placed on plants of Hippocrepis, with leaves old and mature, apparently 

 survivors from the preceding year, and in these they had eaten small round 

 pits ; a few had discovered a leaf or two of very small size, but apparently 

 of recent growth, and had fed in the normal way, making a hole and 

 eating out the parenchyma of the leaf through it so as to make minute 

 white-mined patches ; these larvae looked thriving, had grown some- 

 what, and had obvious green contents. He had previously noted 

 (May 22nd, 1906) that the young larva in its first instar, takes 

 up a resting-place in a leaf-axil of Hippocrepis comosa, behind a 

 head of flower-buds, and moves for feeding to a neighbouring 

 small leaf on which it has, on three several occasions, made three 

 several attacks, which are now T minute pale blotches, where it 

 has eaten out the parenchyma through a minute hole, after 

 the manner of some Coleophorids. Rayward states that, in its early 



