POLYOMMATUS ICARUS. 175 



by way of the Tangier form (end of June, 1880), he says, are closely 

 allied to those from the Pyrenees-Orientales, and consequently to the 

 French forms ; celina, therefore, can, he concludes, only be looked 

 upon as a local variety of P. alexis, constant in the warmer part of 

 Oran and Spain, the local race presenting two forms, one vernal (our 

 meridionalis-vernalis), the other festival, celina, the latter more 

 characterised than the former, compared with the French type of 

 P. alexis. Zeller gives (his, 1847, pp. 150 et seg.) some very interesting 

 notes on the variation of this species, referring particularly to the 

 Italian races, to which he paid considerable attention. Some of his 

 remarks clearly apply to the form celina, Aust., as it occurs in Sicily. 

 He observes that southern P. icarns vary more than those of central 

 Europe, and remarks on this variation in the following directions — 



Males. — 1. — Size— southern examples being of the size of Plebeius argus 

 (aegon), and never as large as the more northern spring brood. 



2. — Ground colour — all the shades of the central European forms being 

 present, and, in addition, one with much heightened colour and with less red tint, 

 taken at Messina in July. 



3. — In the spots at the edge of the upperside of the hindwing, which are 

 almost wanting in the Naples form, but almost invariably present in those from 

 Syracuse (end of April, May, and June), Catania (end of June and beginning of 

 July), sometimes larger than in Agriades thetis (adonis), and uniting with the 

 black border. Two from Syracuse (June 9th) and Catania (June 27th) have them 

 very large and with reddish scales on their inner edge. All those from Messina 

 have large spots, many of them with a border of orange scales [one only is without, 

 and is of such a purple-blue like the northern specimens that 1 think a wrong date, 

 July 27th, must have been put on by an oversight] . 



4. — In the colouring of the nervures of the upperside ; the Italian, like the 

 German, examples having the subcostal and median nervures with their branches 

 of a light, rather shining blue, but unlike the latter and Loew's examples from 

 Asia Minor, all the black-spotted ones, and even the Neapolitan unspotted specimens, 

 have the ends of the nervures black for some little distance. [Exceptions are three 

 from the Apennines (September 5th) and one from Trieste (September 12th).] 

 This character is never carried so far on the hindwings, but many German 

 examples have the ends of the nervures black on these latter, this is also the case 

 with the Italian examples, but those from Messina have black showing far along 

 the nervures. 



5. — In the black marginal line of the forewing, which in German and Asiatic 

 examples never extends to a dark shading on to the ground colour as in the Sicilian 

 and some of the mainland Italian specimens. [Only one Sicilian example (July 

 26th) is without, three (May 31st, June 3rd, 11th) have some shading and black 

 ends to the nervures, all the rest have a broad shading and well-developed spots, 

 some more so than in P. argus (argyrognomon) .] 



6. — In the ground colour of the underside almost all Italian specimens have 

 a strong tinge of yellow in the hindwings, giving a yellow-brown ground colour 

 instead of brownish-grey, with yellowish -white rings round the spots, especially in 

 the summer brood; in addition, there is very little suffusion at the base, and only 

 in the April brood at Messina and Syracuse is there any bluish-green, in the rest 

 it is yellowish-green, and does not reach the basal spots, in some being merely on 

 the base itself ; two from Syracuse, however (April 22nd and 24th) are quite like 

 German ones in ground colour and suffusion. 



7. — In the colour of the knob of the antennas which is red or red-brown 

 beneath, and in the more or less distinct white rings ; several examples have 20-21 

 black rings before the knob, instead of the 18-19 of the rest and of the German 

 ones. 



Females. — 1. — The red spots on the upperside nearly always larger, brighter, 

 and more sharply defined, more like Aricia astrarche (agestis). 



2. — The ground colour of the upperside with a more yellow tone ; only April 

 and May specimens have any blue powdering ; in these (and a few others only) the 

 row of red spots on the hindwing is edged with blue. 



3. — On the underside the yellow-brown of the ground colour and the red of the 

 marginal spots is increased ; no green suffusion occurs at the base except in those 



