CELASTRINA ARGIOLUS. 417 



than the margin. The underside is almost white, and the spots are large and 

 clear-coloured. The 2nd and 3rd terminal segments of the abdomen are black 

 above. Unfortunately, in both seasons, I left the Kanawba before the females 

 would naturally be flying, which would be two weeks or more after the first 

 appearance of the males. Probably they are equally abundant with the males, 

 as is the case with the females of pseudargiolus, but, like the latter, they may be 

 found in different localities from the males. Violacea appears in the first warm 

 days of spring. I took it in 1865 on March 17th. It is gregarious, frequenting in 

 great numbers the edges of the creeks and wet places in the road. I have thrown 

 the net over a dozen or more at once, and have attracted them by the decoy of a 

 dead specimen pinned to the ground. Occasionally one or two may be seen about 

 the flowers of the peach-trees, which bloom at the same season, but they are 

 not partial to flowers. I have noticed this species for several years, and was struck 

 from the first by its deep shade of colour as well as its habits and its early appearance, 

 but was inclined to consider it a variety of lucia, Kirby, a species widely spread, though 

 apparently nowhere common, in the northern parts of the continent, but, after 

 comparing large numbers of them with undoubted lucia from many localities, 

 1 am satisfied it is a distinct species. As the description of lucia is not copied in 

 full in Morris's synopsis, I give it here for the purpose of comparison. " Primaries 

 (below) cinerascent, with (four) indistinct eyelets in the margin ; secondaries 

 brownish ash-colour, spotted with black and white, with five eyelets in the margin. 

 Wings above silvery-blue, terminating, especially at the posterior margin, in a 

 slender black line ; fringe white, barred with black ; primaries, underneath, ash- 

 coloured, mottled with white ; on the disc is a black crescent and a curved macular 

 band, consisting mostly of oblique black crescents edged with white, especially on 

 their underside ; the wing terminates posteriorly in a broad ish brown band, formed 

 chiefly by obsolete eyelets ; the secondaries are brown, 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." The present species is of a very different blue from 

 lucia, which is whitish, and perhaps might be called " silvery " (though that term 

 would seem to imply a metallic shade, which lucia has not), and the apical portion 

 of the hind-margin of primaries bears a conspicuous black border. The entire 

 surface of the underside of violacea is grey ish- white, of the other the primaries are 

 "ash-coloured mottled with white," the secondaries "brown spotted and striped 

 with black and white," each wing terminating in a " brown band " co-extensive 

 with the eyelets. The figure given by Kirby represents a large triangular patch of 

 brown upon secondaries, in addition to the brown margins.* There is nothing of 

 these features or of mottling in the Kanawha specimens. From Maine I have three 

 c? s of lucia, one of which displays the patch exactly as in the figure of Kirby, the 

 other two want this, but all have the brown borders. One 3 from London 

 has both patch and borders. A pair taken by Mr. Eidings, at Pike's Peak, show 

 the same. Of four s s and one ? taken at Fort Simpson, all have the brown 

 borders and mottled surface, the ? only the triangular patch. The ? s taken at 

 Newburgh have the borders, but not the patch, and both are mottled with white. 

 (The period of lucia is probably considerably later relatively than violacea. Those 

 from Newburgh were taken about May 25th, some weeks after the blooming of the 

 peach-trees, with which, in Kanawha, violacea is contemporary. The latter is the 

 earliest butterfly of the spring. The former is preceded by several species.) I 

 think, therefore, it will not be doubted that violacea is a distinct species. How 

 widely it may be distributed I have not yet the means of knowing. Probably it 

 will be found in Ohio and the lower Middle States (Edwards). 



Fuller information has modified much of what Edwards has written 

 above, and violacea may be shortly diagnosed as that particular form 

 of the spring emergence, in which there is a tendency to purplish in 

 the tint of the upperside, and a minimum of fuscous shading on the 

 underside, especially of the hindwings. His critical remarks, too, 

 on Kirby 's figure of lucia (supra), are not all in unison with his later 



* This critical note by Edwards on Kirby's figure, should be carefully com- 

 pared with the later ones included in his original description of marginata (anted 

 p. 414) and neglecta (posted p. 423). The differences suggest that Edwards was 

 not always too particular in his choice of colour terms. 



