144 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



This is the 2 form in which the bases of the wings are of a bright blue 

 colour of the tint of var. clara. The name was created to cover all the 

 forms with bright blue bases, without differentiation of the presence or 

 absence of the orange lunular margins. Restricting the name to those 

 with orange lunules on all the wings, we might call that with orange 

 lunules on the hindwings only thersites-semiclara, and that without 

 orange lunules on any of the wings fusca-semidara. 



£. ab. thestylis, Kirby, " Jermyn's Butt. Coll. Vade Mecum," p. 167 (1827) ; 

 Stphs., "Cat.," p. 24 (1829); Humph, and Wd., "Brit. Butts.," p. 108 (1841); Dale, 

 "Hist. Brit. Butts.," p. 71 (1890). Icarus var. 8, Stphs., "Illus.," i., p. 92 

 (1828). — Wings above black, with a deep blue disk, anterior margin with a slender 

 white edge ; underneath of a pale drab or brown ash-colour, terminating in a slender 

 black line at the edge, at the base somewhat glaucous or bluish-green ; fringe long 

 and white, with shorter brown scales intermixed. Primary wings above, with a 

 transverse discoidal black spot near the anterior margin, underneath with a 

 discoidal wreath consisting of ten ocellated spots, black cinctured with white, of which 

 the discoidal one is triangular ; at the margin is the usual articulate band of six 

 ocellated spots consisting of a black pupil, iris white posteriorly, interiorly orange, 

 crowned with a black and white acute vertex. (N.B. — There is a faint trace of 

 this band on the upperside of the wing.) Secondary wings on both sides of the 

 margin with a similar band, the upper one consisting of six, and the lower one 

 of eight, spots ; in the latter, the first and last have no pupil, and the last but one 

 is formed of two spots and has two pupils. In the disk of the underside is a 

 triangular wreath consisting of 11 ocellated spots, in the centre of which is a 

 discoidal triangular one, all black cinctured with white. A white blot connects the 

 wreath with the marginal band (Kirby). 



This is the $ form in which deep blue extends from the base over 

 the disc, with orange submarginal spots on the hindwings, but with the 

 orange only very faintly developed on the forewings, and, therefore, 

 inclined to the thersites-thestylis form (antea, p. 131). Kirby's thestylis 

 var. 1, described as having " the primary wings with a distinct 

 marginal band of orange-coloured crescents surmounted with black, 

 and the central spot of the underside of the secondary wings blind," 

 is really a more definite orange-lunuled form of the blue 2 —thestylis : 

 whilst his thestylis var. 2, described as being " like the preceding, but 

 with the band of the upperside of the hindwings showing the posterior 

 part of the iris silvery, that is with outer pale margin, is tkestylis- 

 albomarginata. Humphreys and Westwood (British Butts., p. 108) 

 say that " the thestylis of Jermyn is based upon large 2 specimens in 

 which the blue of the upper surface is much more extended than in 

 ordinary individuals." 



o. ab. lacon, Kirby, "Jermyn's Butt. Coll. Vade Mecum," p. 168 (1827).— 

 Very like P. thestylis, but the fringe of the secondary wings barred with brown. 

 The primary wings underneath have a rather large kidney-shaped blackish spot 

 cinctured obscurely with white, the concave side of which is towards the interior 

 margin (in one wing the pupil of the kidney-shaped spot is double or interrupted in 

 the middle); the discoidal circlet consists of only eight ocellated spots, including 

 these, arranged obliquely as it were in two bands. The secondary wings underneath 

 are darker, and blacker at the base, the triangular wreath consists of only ten spots 

 of which that next the costal margin is kidney-shaped with the concave side 

 towards the disk (Kirby). 



This is practically the same form as thestylis, the deep blue 

 extending from the base over the whole of tin 1 disc, a transverse black 

 discoidal spot and marginal band surmounted with orange lunules, but 

 only faintly on the forewings; the underside normal except as noted 

 above. The description of the underside spots can only be rightly 

 appreciated by reference to the description of thestylis (supra). We have 



