POLYOMMATUS ICARUS. 209 



species. In Britain it is generally distributed, more so, perhaps, than 

 any other British butterfly, certainly more so than any other British 

 Lycaenid, and it is common in the Orkney Islands, as well as the 

 Hebrides. On the continent its habitats are much like those of the 

 British Isles, and vary as greatly, the species being found in almost all 

 suitable spots in Central Europe — France, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, 

 Germany, Switzerland, Austro-Hungary, the Balkan Peninsula, Italy 

 and Russia, as well as in Asia Minor, Syria, Persia, Afghanistan and 

 Baluchistan, but becoming local, rather than common, in Scandinavia, 

 northern Russia, the Altai Valleys, Mongolia and Amurland. Its 

 appearance in island habitats, often in abundance (and where no other 

 Lycamid is found), e.g., the Canaries, Scilly Isles, the Hebrides, and the 

 Orkneys, is to be noticed, and Sparre- Schneider's remarks (Tromso 

 Mus. Aarshefter, xv, pp. 24-25) become interesting. He states that 

 the species is common in the southern part of the Island of Tromso 

 in gardens and meadows, yet it has not been observed on the mainland 

 opposite ; it also occurs on the Island of Huko. He believes that in 

 Scandinavia, in the latitude of Tromso, the species is largely confined 

 to coast habitats, being generally found near inlets of the sea, e.g., at 

 Groto, extending only in the direction of the valleys of Beieren and 

 Saltdalen, and not having been observed inland. Rowland-Brown found 

 the species in a sandy, well-wooded pit close in under the hills, about 

 two miles from Bossekop inland, in the valley of the Alten, chiefly 

 affecting an aromatic plant, apparently an Artemisia, with Plebeiiis 

 argyrognomon, Vacciniina optilete, ('alias hecla, etc. The British 

 habitats really need no description ; the species still occurs in the 

 corners of enclosed meadows, roadsides, and less frequented lanes on 

 the outskirts of modern London, occasionally finding its way into 

 the open parks although so frequented ; on the South and North 

 Downs, rough grassy slopes on the chalk-downs, covered in some 

 places with a tangled confusion of bramble, rose, scabious, ragwort, 

 sainfoin, and other chalk-loving plants, in other places with short 

 vegetation, among which Poterium, Helianihemum, Lotus, Medicar/o 

 Hippocrepis, and other plants flourish, are alwa}~s a chosen haunt 

 •of this species. Between Strood and Ranscombe the species 

 abounds on the chalk slopes of the outskirts of the wood, as 

 well as on the edge of the clover and lucerne fields, and indeed on 

 almost any piece of real waste ground or ground under cultiva- 

 tion for fodder crops. It also loves the clearings in the woods 

 that top the chalk-hills everywhere in this district, as well as the 

 wide, open, flowery paths, and the rough slopes that Agriades thetis 

 and A. coridon also prefer. Similarly, on the downs at Winchester 

 the insect is abundant with Cupido minimus ; and at Folkestone is 

 very common in the sheltered hollows at the foot of the downs as well 

 as in the Warren, the ? s here being usually very variable ; the species 

 occurring with an abundance of A. thetis, both in May-June, and in 

 August- September. Indeed, on the downs, it may be truly said to 

 •occur in every meadow, and on every grassy hillside, and James says 

 that it occurred in myriads at the end of July, 1899, in the flowery 

 hollows on the hillsides near Betchworth. Not that these are its onlv 

 habitats in the south, for, in early August, 1896, it swarmed equally 

 on the heaths of Broadwater Forest. Another characteristic locality is 

 the coast sandhills, where among the higher marram-covered mounds 



