POLYOMMATUS ICARUS. 177 



bright blue ground colour with strongly developed border line, the 

 other four can only be distinguished from typical alexis by the yellow- 

 brown ground colour of the hindwings. A $ from Trieste, September 

 12th, is typical even on the underside. A £ from Cisterna, at the 

 northern end of the Pontine Marshes, only differs from the southern 

 ones in having paler reddish-) ellow spots." It will be observed from 

 these notes that $> s throughout Italy show very little difference from 

 one another, but that the $ s from Naples, etc., are distinctly not of 

 the celina type. As a race, the Sicilian $ s alone, of these here noted, 

 appear to belong to the Mauretanian form. Verity notes (Bull. Ent. 

 Soc. Ital., xxxix., p. 115) that the species is very variable in the 

 island of Elba, indeed, examples are found there identical with those 

 of Continental Tuscany, mixed with others presenting in the most 

 conspicuous manner the characters of the African (and probably 

 Sicilian) race celina, Aust., of small size, well-marked series of 

 marginal black spots on the hindwing, and absolute lack of the 

 suffusion of blue scales on the underside of the hindwings. 



/3. var. sardoa, Wagner, " Ent. Zeits. Stuttgt.," xxiii., p. 17 (1909); Gillm., 

 "Ent. Bee," xxi., p. 260 (1909). — s . Upperside somewhat deeper blue, but 

 scarcely differing from other specimens ; the underside of all the wings, how- 

 ever, which even in the second brood, and, in such southern localities as Dalmatia 

 and Corfu, remains grey, with greenish suffusion at the base of the hindwing, is 

 here brownish to brown, the marginal lunules light reddish-yellow, eye-spots 

 sharply bordered with white, the greenish dusting at the root of the hindwings 

 entirely wanting. ? . Upperside without blue dusting, marginal lunules large and 

 strongly marked, fringes brown through their whole extent; the underside of all 

 the wings dark brown, similarly without the greenish scaling at the root of the 

 hindwings, the bordering of the eye-spots, and the usual white markings much 

 clearer chalky white. Sardinia, Laconi, May, four <? s, two ? s. Just as many 

 other local forms may be found more or less frequently as aberrations among 

 typical specimens, so also var. sardoa appears to be found as a very rare in- 

 dividual aberration elsewhere, as is proved by a ? from Gaisberg, near Krenis 

 (Preissecker, June 14th, 1908), which agrees exactly with Sardinian ? s (Wagner). 



It is difficult to know on what this local variety is based except 

 that the undersides of both sexes are browner, as in var. celina and in 

 ab. brunnea, Fuchs. The $ s on the upperside are of the form 

 illustrated by Esper'sab. medon, well-known as an aberration through- 

 out Europe, and as racial in the south in the summer form celina. The 

 same is exactly true of the Corsican race, which also has almost typical 

 $ s, and 2 s of the medon or celina form, was recently named by 

 Rowland-Brown [Ent., xlii., p. 300 (1909)] ab. Jiavocinctata, and which 

 he compares with that of Auvergne, noting that " another distinc- 

 tive form of Lycsenid in Lozere is the $ of P. icarus, which repro- 

 duces, in miniature, the warm, rich, uniform brown of the lovely and 

 larger unnamed summer race from Ajaccio, which I should like to 

 denominate ab. fiavocinctata, and though yet, so far as Corsica is con- 

 cerned, accepted as a form of P. alexin, it will, I think, some day be 

 differentiated from the type as a constant variety at the least." If the 

 form sardoa stands by its browner underside coloration in both sexes, 

 it would fall before brunnea, Fuchs, or are the exaggerated white 

 markings of the underside, noted by Wagner, characteristic of the 

 Sardinian race ? 



y. var. (et ab.) clara, Tutt, "Brit. Butts.," p. 175 (1896); " Ent. Rec," ix., 

 p. 80 (1897); "Ent. Rec," xiv., p. 113(1902); Lamb., "Cat. Lep. Belg.," 

 p. 425 (1907); Turner, "Ent. Rec," xix., p. 307 (1907); Gillm., "Int. Ent. 

 Zeits. Gub.," ii., pp. 2, 11 (1908). Icarus var., Esp., " Schmett. Eur.," pi. 



