POLYOMMATUS ICAKUS. 181 



with the ocellated spots distinct and very well developed. The 

 ■examples in the British Museum coll. illustrate this, e.g., $ s and 

 2 s from Samarkand (ex Staudinger) are quite typically spotted on 

 the underside ; three $ s and one 2 from Dshungaria have also 

 almost typical undersides, as also have two $ s from the " Tchuja 

 Valley, 6000ft., 21. vii. '98 (Elwes) " and one $ " Biisk, 7. viii. '98 

 (Elwes)," except that the undersides are rather pale and incline to the 

 facies of the icadius-napaea-yarkundensis-fugitiva group, but the under- 

 sides have rather more distinct ocellated spots and better developed 

 marginal lunules, although the usual fulvous spots remain yellowish. It 

 may also be noted that, whilst Grum's examples in the British Museum 

 coll., labelled " kashgharensis" from " the Sarafschan district," are of 

 the hylas-bhiQ form, two $ s and two 2 s, labelled " Sary-Ob, Saraf- 

 schan, 7000-9000ft., Funke, 1900," are different, the $ s bright blue, 

 but not hylas-blue, suggesting that, at high elevations, as well as in the 

 more northern valleys of the Altai, the hylas-tint is lost, and the 

 deeper blue of our northern and central European form retained ; 

 the two 2 s are practically without blue on the uppersides, one with 

 orange lunules on all four wings, the other with none ; the underside 

 of the £ s whitish, of the 2 s brownish ; the $ s rather weakly, the 

 2 s well, spotted. Lederer first noted (Verh. zool.-bot. Gesell., 1853, 

 p. 356) the species from Siberia, in June ; Staudinger observes (Stett. 

 Ent. Ztg., 1881, p. 264) that the three specimens obtained by Haber- 

 hauer in the Ala Tau were in no way different from the usual 

 European ones. Herz noted it (Iris, xi., p. 237) as common in Witim 

 and Wilni in June and July, not different from ordinary icarus, one 2 

 with much blue almost exactly corresponding with ab. persica, Bienert ; 

 one $ of ab. icarinus only was taken, at Wilni, July 13th, with light 

 blue-grey underside. Staudinger says (Rom. Mem., vi., p. 162) that 

 Bremer brought back a single, but very large and brilliant, example which 

 Maack found in June on the lower Ussuri ; Dorries also sent a very 

 large $ from Baranowka, the largest icarus in his (Staudinger's) col- 

 lection ; Graeser also found one strikingly large $ (32mm.) in July 

 near Pokrofka. This species, therefore, so common in Europe, 

 and in the whole of western and central Asia, is a great rarity in 

 Amurland, and seems to be altogether wanting in Japan and 

 China (except Mongolia and the Thibetan frontier). There is 

 only one example from Mongolia in the British Museum col- 

 lection ; this is labelled " Mongolia, 1899, Leder," and has the upper- 

 side of an almost typical lilac-blue like the Altai examples, but the 

 underside is very dark grey ; the spotting is well developed (although 

 of the icarinus type) ; the margin with well-defined lunules, sur- 

 mounted by bright orange, and the usual chevrons as in well-marked 

 European specimens ( — mongolica). Whilst the Mongolian examples 

 are like those of the Altai, except in the tint of the underside, the 

 Thibetan (Elwes) and Chinese* (Leech) examples are rather of the 

 Himalayan type. Leech says (Butts. China," ii., p. 307) that, " in the 

 colour of the uppersurface, the Chinese $ s of P. vcarus agree better 

 with the same sex of P. hylas of Europe, and the Indian P. ariana. 



* These come, according to the locality labels, from just over the Thibet 

 border in the Szu-Chuan district of China. They bear a considerable resemblance 

 to P. eroides, but are declared by Chapman, on genetalic characters, to be correctly 

 named icarus. 



