322 



BEITISH BUTTEKFLIES. 



of a bright blue tint on the upperside, the females brown or black, 

 with a more or less complete marginal band of orange spots, although 

 in some cases, e.g., the typical genus Lycaena (avion, etc.), the ground 

 colour of both sexes may be blue, the sexual difference being found 

 in the spotting, etc., whilst in Aricia (astro rche, etc.) both sexes are 

 brownish-black. 



We have already, in the preceding volume (p. 317), given Scudder's 

 comparison of the eggs of the "blues " with those of the "coppers" 

 and " hairstreaks." The eggs are somewhat depressed, ' echinoid in 

 shape, the cells with remarkably well-developed, strongly-projecting 

 walls, joined by fine lines at the pillars of the angular points, these 

 pillars being sometimes highly-developed, and helping to form an 

 ornamentation of great beauty. The central depression varies con- 

 siderably, but the gradual increase in the size of the cells, passing 

 from the micropyle outwards, is very noticeable (see preceding vol., 

 pL iv., figs. 3-6). Comparison with the Chrysophanid egg (op. cit., 

 pi. iii., figs. 3-6) will show that the cells of the latter are much larger, 

 coarser, and have an appearance quite siri generis. Chapman, however, 

 notes (in litt.) : "I am not at all sure that the eggs of Lycaenids, 

 Theclids, and Chrysophanids can be distinguished from each other 

 either actually or by definition. It is not, however, difficult to note 

 distinctions in the groups if we regard only the British species. All 

 of them are notable as having a special adventitious coat outside the 

 egg proper, a coat that is absent only over the micropylar rosette, but 

 may be reduced to a very slight structure, as over the dome of 

 Edicardsia w-album. This coating, either on its own account or 

 following lines on the true egg beneath, has a netted structure, with 

 meshes square or hexagonal, but more usually triangular, and often 

 with knobs, pillars, or other projections at the intersections. As a 

 summary one may note : 



Chrysophaisiids. — Egg dome- or bun-shaped, meshes of network large and bold. 

 (Rumicia phlaeas, Heodes virgaureae, and others are similar, have the pits of the 

 network of spherical surface cutting each other in sharp margins and angles, 

 hardly, therefore, submitting to the generalised description of a network of lines.) 



Theclids. — Egg domed or bun-shaped, network of typical angular pattern, 

 very thick (Ruralis betulae) or nearly wanting (top of Edicardsia w-album), projections 

 at intersections tend to be hair-like rather than knobbed (Callophrys rubi, Bithys 

 quereus, Edicardsia w-album). (Several Theclid eggs figured by Scudder are like 

 those of Lycaenids. The differences in Scudder's table of eggs of the three groups 

 seem no more inclusive and exclusive than those I note above.) 



Lycjenids. — Egg with flat top and bottom and rounded sides (cheese-shaped), 

 adventitious coat always white (it is notably white also in some Theclids and 

 Chrysophanids). Meshes smaller and coat thinner, in very regular gradation on the 

 upjDer flat surface from margin to centre, where the micropylar depression and 

 rosette are always distinct, but never either in a deep hole (Ruralis betulae) or on 

 the level (Edicardsia w-album)." 



The larvae are particularly typical of those representing the so-called 

 onisciform type, and are remarkable for the special development of the 

 evaginable glands and caruncles on the 7th and 8th abdominal seg- 

 ments respectively, the former of which secrete the sweet fluid beloved 

 of ants, which become their companions (see vol. i., pp. 30-37). They 

 have a remarkably developed neck, particularly useful in those larvae 

 that bore a hole through the epidermis of the leaf, and then feed on 

 the soft tissue around it for some distance, and also in the flower- and 

 seed-eating species, where a good stretch is absolutely necesary to get 



