256 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



griseis, fascia communi marginali utrinque fulva, subtus punctis nigris, albo 

 cinctis. From Teneriffe (Eschholz). 



A German description follows, the important parts of which are 

 here translated : — Size and shape of Lycaena icarus. The colour of 

 the wings on the upperside is a dark brown with a green silky gloss ; 

 scarcely half a line from the outer margin runs a band, more than half 

 a line wide, yellowish red, and somewhat denticulated, on both sides of 

 both wings. Beneath, the ground-colour of the wings is grey. . . . 

 The specimen described is probably a ? , the $ might have a totally 

 different appearance. 



Under the name canariensis this variety was again described and 

 figured in both sexes, by Blachier in the Annates of the Entomological 

 Society of France. He speaks of it as an exaggeration of var. aestiva, 

 and observes that on the upperside, as well as the under, the red border 

 forms a continuous band. The ground-colour of the underside he 

 calls brown or dark fulvous. Eschholz describes the underside as grey, 

 but figures it as brown. Indeed, the two figures correspond precisely, 

 but the orange-red band has turned almost black/" as is the case with 

 other figures in the Annates. 



There is considerable variation in the breadth of the orange-red 

 border. The denticulation on its inner side is often very marked, as 

 much so as in var. chinensis. The brown of the upperside is darker 

 than is usual in aestiva and ornata. Specimens closely approaching 

 this form occur occasionally in Sardinia, but with redder-brown 

 upperside. 



Upperside Aberrations. 



a. ab. pallidior, Obfch., " Lep. Comp.," iv., p. 253 (1910). — The orange-red 

 spots may become pale yellow (Oberthur). 



No particular examples are quoted by Oberthur, but in the Brit. 

 Mus. coll. is a Norwegian S from the Elwes coll., taken at Skogstad, 

 July 15th, 1887, with very pale spots on the hind wings, the forewings 

 being without spots ; on the underside the spots are still paler, and are 

 present on both wings. In this specimen the black spots on the 

 underside are small. 



A very extreme form of this tendency is exemplified in the next- 

 named aberration : — 



3. ab. graafti, ver Huell, "Sepp's Ned. Vlind.," vii., Pref., p. ii., fig. on 

 Titlepage (1843-1855) ; " Tijdsk. Ent.," iii., p. 12 (1860) ; Snell., " De Vlind.," 

 i., p. 60 (1867); Kirby, " Syn. Cat.," p. 766 (1871). Agestis var., Herklots, 

 " Bouwst. Fn. Ned.," ii., p. 221 (1853). — With white marginal spots in place of 

 red (ver Huell). 



This is a very striking form, and is beautifully illustrated on the 

 title page of the 7th vol. of Sepp's Nederlandsche Winders; the white 

 marginal spots forming chevrons on both wings. It appears, so far, 

 to have been taken only in Holland, but has occurred there on three or 

 four occasions and at different places. The first recorded was a very 

 fresh S taken by de Graaf at Wassenaar at the end of June, 1851, 

 another was taken by ver Huell at Arnhem in 1853, another at 

 Norwijk at the beginning of July, 1859, which was also in the de Graaf 

 coll. There is a slight confusion in the records of this last specimen, 



* This is no doubt due to the use of vermillion, which always sooner or later 

 becomes black (G.W.). 



