FAMILY HABITS IN BUTTERFLY LARVAE THE LYCENIDS. 67 



neck, suggest it as a boring larva, and this is one of the great family 

 characteristics of the larvae of the " blues," whether it be the remarkable 

 boring habits of those of the Lampidids and of the Celastrinids, the less 

 marked boring habits of the Everids and of the Cupidids, or the little- 

 developed habit, as exemplified in the Plebeiids. The boring habit of 

 Celastrinapseudargiolusis well described by Edwards (Butts. Nth. America, 

 ii., Lycaena, pp. 6. 7), who says : — " As soon as hatched the young larva 

 eats a minute hole the diameter of the head into the lower part of the 

 unopened bud just above the calyx, and feeds upon the filaments of the 

 stamens. ... As the larva feeds, the prothorax is pressed hard 

 against the bud, so as to permit the utmost elongation of the neck ; 

 thus it is enabled to eat out the contents of the bud, and only desists 

 when there remains but the empty shell. When so engaged, the 

 anterior segments are curled up and the others rest on the stalk of the 

 plant, but very small larvae rest wholly on the bud, curving round it. 

 After its first moult, it bores into the sides of the calyx to get at the 

 ovules, but, as the flowers mature and the ovary hardens, the boring is 

 from the top, inside the tube of the calyx, and follows the stalk of the 

 pistil to the ovule." Our Palaearctic form, C. argiolus, feeds similarly. 

 Whem getting pretty large in the 3rd stage, a larva that has just attacked 

 a new bud looks as if resting on the bud, the lateral flange, where it 

 passes round the front of the larva, touching the bud and hiding the 

 head ; the head, however, is buried inside the bud, and the body 

 remains motionless, although the larva may be actually feeding ; its 

 long, extensile neck enables a bud of holly or ivy to be cleared out so 

 far as is desired. When larvae of C. argiolus feed on holly-leaves, the 

 latter have the appearance of being mined. Of Plebeius scudderii, 

 Scudder notes (Butts. New Engl., p. 960) the young larva has a very 

 extensible head and flexible neck ; it feeds on the underside of a leaf, 

 piercing the lower cuticle, and making a hole just large enough to 

 introduce the minute head, and then devour the soft tissue of the leaf 

 of Lupinus perennis as far as it can reach, giving the appearance of a 

 circular blotch with a central nucleus, the nearly colourless membrane 

 being all that is left ; when larger, it feeds on the upper- as well as the 

 undersurface, preferring the under-, but never eats right through, 

 leaving the opposite skin, using its long neck to reach the juicier parts. 

 The young larvae of Plebeius aegon make similar small transparent 

 blotches on the leaflets of Ornithopus perpusillus, and, even when of a 

 considerable size, do not eat through the leaf, but only hollow out the 

 soft green tissue. Similarly the young larvae of Aricia astrarche mine 

 out the cellular tissue from the underside of the leaves of Helianthemum, 

 vulgare, causing the appearance of small flesh-coloured spots on the 

 dark green upper-surface of the leaves, the spots gradually increasing 

 in size, and forming blotches of irregular figure ; the larvae at this time 

 assimilate very closely in colour to the whitish underside of the 

 Helianthemum leaves ; after hybernation, they again mine out the soft 

 tissue and leave the epidermis, which turns yellow, quite untouched. 

 The young larvae of Agriades bellargus also mine into the leaves of Hippo- 

 crepis comosa, inserting the head into a small hole of the underside and 

 tunnelling out the soft tissue as far as can be reached, leaving the 

 upper skin untouched, thus marking the leaflets with little whitish 

 dots ; in the spring the larva continues this mode of feeding, but, to- 

 wards maturity, like those of most of its close allies, it eats through the 



