CELASTRINA ARGIOLUS. 467 



Cockington ; April 21st, 1906, at Torquay (Tutt) ; April 21st, 



1906, at Abergele (Tyther) ; April 22nd, 1906, at Hampton Wick 

 (H.P.E.) ; April 27th, 1906, at Wandsworth (Eansom) ; May 

 4th, 5th, 6th, 1906, at Hazeleigh (Raynor) ; May 17th, 1906, at 

 Lewisham (J. Cochrane) ; June 5th, 1906, and again August 7th- 

 20th, 1906, at Tintern (Bird; ; June 7th, 1906, at Pentwyn (Rait- 

 Srnith) ; bred September 15th-22nd, 1906, from larvae that pupated 

 August 25th, 1906, onwards, at Mucking (Burrows) ; March 31st, 



1907, at Oxshott (Alderson) ; April 27th, 1907, atHaslemere (Oldaker) ; 

 May 8th, 1907, at Sway (Raynor) ; May 11th, 1907, at St. John's 

 Wood(Druce); May 11th, 1907, in Westcombe Park (F. M. Tutt) ; 

 May 12th, 1907, at Hailing (Ovenden); May 12th, 1907, on Paul's 

 Cray Common (A. M. Cochrane); May 25th, 1907, in Correl Glen 

 (Allen); May 19th, June 1st, June 8th, 1907, at the base of Minerva 

 mtn. (Arkle); August 2nd, September 4th, 1907, at Hazeleigh (Raynor). 



Habits. — This species differs in its general habits from all other 

 British species of " blues." It flies high and restlessly, often for con- 

 siderable distances before resting, and not, as a rule, over low herbage as do 

 the other species of "blues," to be later noticed. Blachier says that 

 it has a zigzag and hesitating flight which has some similarity to that 

 of Thecla ilicis, or, still more, to that of Pararge megaera; it flies 

 around bushes and hedges, passing freely from one side to the other, 

 and so is not at all easy to capture. We have seen it careering wildly 

 round holly bushes in the gardens around Hereford, Blackheath, 

 Westcombe Park, and other surburban districts, as well as in the 

 gardens of Rochester Castle, where also they fly round the topmost 

 battlements of the ivy-covered keep, sometimes in great numbers in 

 both broods. Far different are the open rides of the woods at 

 Chattenden, the flowery openings of those topping the chalk-hills at 

 Cuxton, or the wild ravines at Dinmore, where also they have been 

 frequently observed, as well as on the outskirts of the thickets in Epping 

 Forest. In the Kentish woods this is the first newly-emerged butterfly 

 to appear ; it comes with the bluebells, and, wherever there is a carpet 

 of bluebells, there, on a hot sunny morning, C. argiolus will be found 

 flitting about ; the second brood of the species is, in these haunts, 

 rare, only comparatively few specimens being seen in August and 

 September flitting along the rides, or on the outskirts of the woods ; 

 but a few miles distant, as has already been noted, it is often quite 

 abundant on the ivy-clad walls of Rochester Castle, whence it 

 frequently extends its explorations into the streets of the city. 

 Clifford remarks that, in the Gravesend district, he observed the 

 tendency for the May imagines to haunt the buckthorn hedges, and 

 supposed that it was that the $ s desired to oviposit on the buckthorn 

 flowers, whilst the late summer imagines appeared to be partial to late 

 bramble blossom, or still later in the year to ivy-bloom. In July, 

 1900, we observed the $ s of the summer emergence adopting a very 

 different habit from those of the spring brood in Westcombe Park, for 

 then many were observed flying about the waste ground at flowers, 

 much like Polyommatus icarus. A. H. Clarke also records this differ- 

 ence of habit in the Marlow district, where, he says, the imagines of 

 the spring brood fly at a considerable height from the ground and rarely 

 settle, whilst those of the summer brood fly low, and rest on flowers. 

 Studd also observes that, on July 12th-13th, 1896, a large number of 



