126 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



(tint. Bee, ii., p. Ill) the capture of a bright blue 2 , the discal area 

 shading off to a deep chocolate border, at Queendown Warren, near 

 Chatham, in early June, 1891, whilst Thompson mentions (Ent. Bee., 

 vi., p. 120) a Sligo 2 , taken in 1895, with a series of pale blue 

 crescents on the inner edge of the orange spots of the hindwings. 

 Grover notes [Ent. Bee., ix., p. 312) that, at Guildford, the '2 s usually 

 have the base more or less lilac-blue, but the amount varies from a 

 few scales to others in which it covers half the wing. Bird observes 

 (FJnt. Bee, xvii., p. 311) that the $ s at Tintern appear to be much 

 bluer than those taken near London and in West {Sussex. Barrett 

 states (Brit, hep., i., p. 79) that, " in southern English localities, the 

 species is sometimes found of a dull brown colour, without a trace of 

 blue on the upperside, though, more frequently, a few blue scales appear 

 near the base, or, in increasing numbers, until the middle is tinged 

 with blue ; in the eastern counties, the brown colour is often much 

 darker, the blue suffusion consequently appearing brighter; northward 

 and westward the proportion of blue seems to increase, Until, in the 

 north and west of Ireland, the upperside in this sex is ordinarily of a 

 brilliant glossy blue, except at the margins, which are nearly always 

 more or less dark brown, broken by the orange spots, which, in many 

 of these specimens, are large and brilliant, and often by white dashes 

 between, or by white borders on both the inside and outside of, the 

 orange spots; not infrequently, such specimens have white dashes in 

 the blue towards the apex, or white scales round the central black spot, 

 one observed having a central white spot on the upperside of the hind- 

 wings." Among the most beautiful of the blue 2 s are those belonging 

 to the Central Asiatic races, described in detail (postect), and we have also 

 noted (supra) Oberthur's remarks as to the colour of the spring form in 

 Algeria, fairly well supported by the specimens in the British Museum coll. 

 Graves states that, whilst the 2 s of P. icants captured in May, 1905, 

 in Syria, were in many cases suffused with blue at the bases of the 

 wings and with greyish -blue around the orange marginal spots of the 

 hindwings, those taken in July, 1901, at Ain Zahalta, showed no blue 

 scaling at all. Romanoff notes (Mem., i., p. 52) that blue 2 s occur in 

 Transcaucasia. Miss Fountaine notices (hut., xxxvii., p. 157) the 

 occurrence of a beautiful 2 form, shot with blue over almost the 

 entire area of the wings, not uncommonly at Amasiaand Tokat, whilst 

 Staudinger (Hor. Soc. hut. Boss., xiv., p. 243) states that, on the 

 Jenikeui plateau, in July, 1875, a small number of quite blue 2 s were 

 found, which, at the same time, had fully retained their red marginal 

 spots. The blue form of the 2 , he adds, also occurs in Germany, and 

 more particularly in Lapland, but, in this case, the red marginal spots 

 are wanting. Rowland-Brown notes (Ent., xxxix., pp. 226, 2-J6) 

 the Swedish examples from Abisko and Alten as not differing from the 

 ordinary British examples on the upper- or underside; but that the 2 s, 

 besides those noted as ab. caerulea, are much suffused with blue at 

 Abisko ; at Alten this character is less pronounced, but one 2 shows an 

 almost black ground-colour, the blue shining lustrously over it, as in 

 the 2 s of Plebeius aryyroijnomon var. aegidion, Federley notes {In litt.) 

 that, in Finland, the ab. caerulea occurs quite commonly among the 

 type. At Gibraltar, where the insect is on the wing from February to 

 November, Walker states (Tram. hut. Sue. Land., 1N90, p. 87b) that the 

 2 s are much more blue above even than English specimens, but in 



