412 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



the preceding (Lycaena dorcas). Description : Wings above, silvery-blue, termi- 

 nating, especially at the posterior margin, in a very slender black line ; fringe 

 white barred with black ; primaries underneath ash-coloured mottled with 

 white ; in the disk is a black crescent and a curved macular band, consisting 

 of, mostly, oblique black crescents edged with white, especially on their under- 

 side; the wing terminates posteriorly in a broadish, brown band, formed chiefly 

 by obsolete eyelets ; the secondaries are brown underneath, spotted and striped 

 with black and white ; towards the posterior margin the white spots are arranged 

 in a transverse band parallel with it ; and, as in the primaries, the wing terminates 

 in several obsolete eyelets (Kirby). [See Edwards' different criticisms of this 

 description, poxtea pp. 414, 416, 423, included in our descriptions of ab. marginata, 

 ab. violacea, and ab. ncglecta.~] 



This is called by Scudder the early spring northern form, and is 

 said to comprise the earliest-appearing examples of the spring brood, the 

 later being violacea, and there appears to be every gradation between 

 the two forms, although there is considerable segregation, according to 

 the time of eclosion, towards one or other of these forms. Scudder 

 gives a detailed account of its particular features (Butts. New Engl., ii., 

 pp. 930, 932). He notes it as " nearly uniform bluish-violet (scarcely 

 in the least inclining to purplish ). . . . the outer border edged as a 

 mere thread with blackish, . . . the hindwings as deep as, and similar 

 in tint to, the forewings, and edged with a blackish thread (followed by 

 a submarginal row of small blackish spots in female), etc. Underside 

 uniform pale ash-grey, with a faint bluish tinge ; forewings with a 

 . . . discal streak, ... a curving series of six . . . short broad bars, 

 ... outer border edged with a thread of fuscous, followed by an 

 obscure submarginal series of small, dark fuscous spots in the inter- 

 spaces, followed at an equal distance by an obscure, dark fuscous series 

 of continuous, strongly -curved, transverse bars, between which and 

 the outer border the nervules are frequently infuscated, and the whole 

 margin of the wing is usually washed in a dull obscure fuscous tinge, 

 etc.; hindwings with a basal series of three, not very large, round spots 

 faintly edged with pale, ... a transverse, moderately slender, equal, 

 fuscous discal streak; beyond this an extra-mesial transverse series of 

 blackish or blackish-fuscous, quadrate spots, . . . arranged quite as in 

 violacea, but with those in the two parts of the series almost, or quite, 

 continuous, . . . usually the markings in the middle of the wing are 

 blurred and run together, so as, in extreme examples, to present a 

 greyish-fuscous, large, irregular, central, subtriangular patch, bounded 

 externally by the outer limits of the extra- mesial spots, above by a line 

 connecting the middle of the lower border of the cell and the lower 

 subcostal nervule, with projections extending towards the two costo- 

 subcostal spots, and below by a line connecting the middle of the 

 lower border of the cell and the submedian nervure, where the extra- 

 mesial band crosses it; the outer border of the wing is broadly bathed, 

 usually to a considerable extent, ". . . with dark-greyish fuscous, 

 bounded interiorly by a zigzag line, formed by a series of strongly-bent 

 narrow bars, in each interspace, darker than the rest of the outer 

 border, within which, even in the darkest specimens, may be seen a 

 submarginal row of rather small, blackish, round spots, and a blackish 

 thread edging the border." Scudder further says that, "lucia is con- 

 fined to the northern portion of the Nearctic region, not occurring 

 south of New York and New England, excepting in the extreme west, 

 where it has been taken in northern Colorado ; in the east it has been 

 found as far south as Yonkers and on Long Tsland, and in the west 



