POLYOMMATUS ICARUS. 151 



size, i.e., much larger than is allowed by Humphreys and Westwood. 

 It is quite pallid, on the upperside tinged with lavender, and labelled 

 " Torquay, May, 1859, T. King," the underside is also pallid, the 

 orange very pale, and the spotting weak. J. J. Walker has a some- 

 what similar example taken at Galway in June, 1880, but this looks 

 washed. Dale's example appears as if it might have been changed by 

 light, Walker's by weather, but both were originally very pale.] It is 

 quite clear from Gerhard's figures, which have an expanse of about 

 21mm., that this author's }?usillus (Mon. Schmett., pi. xxviii., figs. 3a-c) 

 is practically the same form as labienus on the upperside; Gerhard notes 

 (p. 15) that several pairs of this aberration, specially distinguished by its 

 small size, were bred by himself in Germany, he further observes that 

 Ochsenheimer referred to this small form (Die Schmett., i., pt. 2, p. 41); 

 he does not mention, however, that Ochsenheimer's specimen (3 ) had a 

 spotted margin to the hindwings. Swinton notes (Ent. Mo. Mag., 1898, 

 p. 184) the capture of a form of icarus near pitsilliis, Gerh., in the 

 neighbourhood of Jerusalem, between May 29th and July 28th, 

 1896, where it occurred plentifully in the gardens and vineyards during 

 the summer. One suspects that Culot's lucia falls here. Oberthiir 

 observes (Etudes, xx., p. 23) that, "in Corsica, at Granada, and in Syria, 

 one meets with extremely small alexis ; certain c? s are of a very much 

 paler blue, and have the texture of the wings as fine as has sebras ; 

 he adds that Graslin had 2 J s and 3 2 s from Spain smaller than 

 the smallest alsus." Some years produce the form quite racially in 

 Europe, thus, on August 18th, 1906, we found very small specimens 

 flying abundantly with others of normal size at Digne ; two days later, 

 at Gresy-sur-Aix, all the P. icarus taken were of a pigmy race, and the 

 same was true also a day or two later at Yersoix ; the south-eastern 

 part of France, in the summer of 1906, was remarkably hot and dry. 

 As showing, however, that heat and drought have not everything to 

 do with the development of this small and poorly-pigmented form, we 

 may add that we captured an example at le Lautaret, in the Dauphiny 

 Alps, at an elevation of more than 7000ft., in August, 1896. It would 

 appear that larva? hurried through their stages, as well as those that 

 are badly placed for a sufficiency of food may be dwarfed in size, but 

 that, of these, some have less power to develop a strongly-marked blue 

 pigment than others. Elwes notes (Trans. Ent. Soc. Land., 1900, 

 p. 193) that " L. icarus was common at the foot of the Bulgarian 

 mountains in 1899. A very small variety, of which the J s were 

 worn and the £ s fresh, was found on the northern foothills of the 

 Balkans, and at first supposed to be candalus, but Staudinger considered 

 that they were only starved specimens of icarus, and the great drought 

 which prevailed in the Lower Danubian provinces during the last 

 winter and spring, would perhaps account for their uniformly stunted 

 development." 



S. ab. nana, Grund, "Int. Ent. Zeits. Guben," ii., p. 79 (1908). Alexis ab., 

 Ochs., " Die Schmett.," i., pt. 2, p. 41(1808). — From July to September, fly among 

 the type form, strikingly small specimens of 21mm. -23mm. expanse, whilst that of 

 typical icarus is from 26mm. -34mm. The <? s have, for the most part, like ab. 

 celina, a row of small black spots before the border of the hindwing, and these 

 small examples, which I name ab. nana, seemed to be confined to certain places ; 

 1 take them every year in two places, viz., a meadow in Maksimir and near Dolja, 

 behind Podsused, but they are also taken in other places in Croatia, e.g., at Fiume 

 by H. Neustetter (Grund). 



