POLYOMMATUS (LYC7EXA) ARION. 10- 



POLYOMMATQS (IjYC^XA) ArION . 



(One of the few larvae of which there is no figure in 



this volume.) 



On the 15th of June, 1869, I had the great pleasure 

 to receive from Mr. Herbert Marsden, a 3 and ? 

 Polyommatus (Lyccena) Avion alive ; they had been cap- 

 tured by him together ; he also sent me at the same time 

 two small plants of Thymus serpyllum in blossom. 



These plants were potted separately and the insects 

 put on one of them under a glass cylinder. During a 

 gleam of sunshine the ? certainly appeared to me to 

 deposit an egg among the flowers, but the weather 

 being cold and cloudy I deferred further observation 

 until the following day, when I again saw her deposit 

 an egg as before. 



After dark I removed the butterflies to the second 

 plant in order that I might closely inspect the first on 

 which they had been for two days ; nor was I dis- 

 appointed, for on the morning of the 17th, on looking 

 over the blossoms with a strong lens, I detected six 

 eggs, all laid on the calyces between the heads of the 

 flowers, but not one on either stalk, stem or leaf. 



The egg of Arion is round, smooth, and depressed 

 on the top, pale greenish-blue in colour. Although 

 the eggs hatched both with Mr. Merrin and myself, 

 yet we have failed to detect the young larvae on the 

 plants at present, but we believe they must be very 

 small, hiding away somewhere, and that they will 

 most likely hibernate. (W. B., 13, 8, 69; E.M.M. 

 VI, 91.) 



On the 15th of June, 1870, 1 received a pair of these 

 butterflies captured in cop. by Mr. Merrin, junr., and 

 kindly sent me by his father. They were at once 

 placed on Thymus serpyllum, and on the 17th were 

 removed to another plant of thyme ; the male was 

 then dead. I now counted the eggs and found six- 



