192 POLYOMMATUS (LYC^Na) ALEXIS. 



about July 27th, and by the 29th two had become 

 pupse, and two others a day or two later, and I bred 

 the butterflies on August 15th; meanwhile the other 

 larvae, though treated just in the same way, had grown 

 much more slowly, and were not half grown when 

 these butterflies appeared ; afterwards one of them 

 grew more quickly and became a pupa, September 

 22nd, in which state it now remains ; the rest died. 

 These notes are meagre enough, but they seem to 

 show that the winter is passed in the larva stage, and 

 that through the summer the succession of broods may 

 be irregular. The egg is much like those of all our 

 Blues which I have been able to examine, circular, 

 rather flat, being just \ mm. in width, and less than 

 half that measurement in height; the shell is dull, 

 covered on the sides and just over the edge of the 

 upper surface with raised reticulation, having project- 

 ing knobs at the knots ; this reticulation becomes finer 

 and less prominent on the upper surface, which has a 

 central depressed spot; this spot is green, while the 

 general ground colour is greenish-white, and the 

 reticulation glistening white. The larva makes its 

 escape by eating a large round hole in the centre of 

 the upper surface of the egg, but leaves the rest of 

 the shell untouched, and for some days in feeding only 

 eats into the substance of a leaf of Lotus corniculatus, 

 either from the upper or the under side, leaving the 

 opposite skin as a white spot, but it can eat the flower 

 entirely. The newly hatched larva is not quite 1 mm. 

 in length, of dumpy figure, the head very small, the 

 second segment as wide as, and longer than, any of 

 the others, and having a semicircular plate with its 

 rounded edge in front, down the back a row of trans- 

 verse pits on the front edge of each segment ; the 

 general colour grey with purplish tinge, the segmental 

 divisions green, the belly yellowish ; the usual dots 

 black on grey warts, and furnished each with a rather 

 long, curved, glistening bristle ; the whole skin besides 

 is finely sprinkled with tiny black dots ; the head 



