POLYOMMATUS ICARUS. 207 



Occasionally a pollen-mass is found on the head of a specimen of this 

 species, and one suspects that it may play a prominent part in the 

 fertilisation of some flowers. Jenner-Weir exhibited (Trans. Ent. 

 Soc. Loud., 1876, p. xxvi) a specimen that had a hollow horn-like 

 protuberance fixed in front of the head exactly between the antennas, 

 and was disposed to think it was the theca of a moss from which the 

 operculum had fallen off, and the spores escaped. The species is 

 frequently found at roadside puddles in the Alpine valleys, or at the 

 trickles that run across the paths, though it is rarely really abundant 

 in such places, and is, as a rule, far less common in most of the 

 mountain valleys of Savoy, Switzerland, and Piedmont, than Agriades 

 coridon, Plebeius argyrognomon, Aricia astrarche, Hirsutina daw on and 

 other allied species. Still, it is generally distributed, and sometimes 

 fairly abundant, e.g., it was quite frequent in Piedmont at the runnels 

 crossing the pathway between Bobbie and Au Pra, with Polyommatus 

 escheri, P. eros, P. hylas, Agriades coridon, Aricia astrarche, and 

 Hirsutina dawon, and occurred similarly on the mountains above Au 

 Pra ; it was also common in the Dora valley near Pre St. Didier, 

 swilling at the runnels and sitting on the hot, damp sand by the side 

 of the Dora with Polyommatus escheri, P. hylas, Hirsutina dawon, 

 Agriades coridon, etc. It abounds on the black mud in the bed of the 

 Eaux-Chaudes, just above the Baths at Digne, with swarms of Agriades 

 coridon, Aricia astrarche, Scolitantides baton, etc., in August, and with 

 other species in the late spring. It occurs throughout the main Rhone 

 valley as well as the lateral valleys, and was very common in August, 

 1899, at the muddy puddles churned by the mules at one of their 

 drinking places near Evolene, but less abundant, perhaps, than 

 Hirsutina damon, Agriades qoridon, Aricia astrarche, Polyommatus 

 escheri, Hesperia alveus, etc., although, in the same valley on August 

 13th, 1903, we saw the species in greater abundance than anywhere else 

 in the Swiss Alps, at puddles between Useigne and Vex, with the species 

 just mentioned, as well as Melitaea didyma, Epinephele lycaon, etc., which, 

 however, it altogether outnumbered. It occurred, on August 7th and 

 9th, 1904, at the runnels in the Saas-Thal, with Aricia donzelii, A. 

 astrarche, Plebeius argyrognomon, Polyommatus eros, etc. In the Roseg- 

 Thal, on August 14th, 1907, $ s of P. icarus were sometimes observed 

 at muddy puddles with Plebeius argyrognomon, Agriades coridon, 

 Polyommatus eros, Aricia astrarche, A. donzelii, etc., the two first- 

 named being its most abundant companions ; still more abundant 

 were $ s of this species a week later in the Via Mala, at the puddles 

 left by the rain of the preceding day, with Agriades coridon, and again 

 the following day just below Sils at the entrance to the Albula 

 valley. High up the Dischma-Thal also it occurred at runnels by the 

 roadside with Plebeius argyrognomon, Aricia astrarche, Latiorina 

 orbitulus, Cyaniris semiargus, Vacciniina optilete, Albulina pheretes, 

 and Agriades coridon, though not at all abundantly, and number- 

 less similar cases could be cited, e.g., Grum-Grshimailo notes 

 (Rom. Mem., iv., p. 402) that, in the Pamir, on hot days, it 

 collects on the edges of puddles as in Europe. The gregarious 

 assembling of this species, in favourite spots for roosting, must 

 be known to all those who have hunted our southern chalk- 

 downs, where the vegetation, being of a comparatively uniform 

 character, enables an observer with his back to the sun to detect the 



