63 



Adonis well deserves its name, and is the most splendid Blue we have. 

 Corydon, however, has a peculiar beauty of its own, it reminds one of the soft 

 silvery appearance of moonlight, whilst Adonis recalls the intense blue of 

 the sky on a hot summer's day. These gay colours are confined to the males, 

 the females are clothed in sober garbs of brown. Corydon boasts of a more 

 or less distinct spot on the upper surface of the hind-wings, this in Adonis 

 we seek for in vain; and, besides, in Corydon we find the dark dashes in the 

 white fringes broader and more conspicious than in Adonis. A fainter point 

 of distinction is, that the black spots of the underside are more conspicuous in 

 Corydon than in Adonis" Corydon has, moreover, a more striking appear- 

 ance than Adonis, and is normally the larger insect of two. The scales, again, 

 with which each is sprinkled, are of the same tint as the respective males. 



POLYMMATUS CORYDON. 

 Chalk Hill Blue. 



Coeydon, Poda, Cor'ydon, a Eoman shepherd. Yirg. Eel. ii. 56. 



This species varies in the expansion of its wings from an inch and a line to 

 an inch and three-quarters. 



The male has the upper surface of the wings of a very light silvery blue 

 with dusky hind-margins, which near the anal angle of the hind-margins are 

 broken up into three or four spots. The female is brown, sprinkled with 

 scales of the male colour, and has a row of fulvous spots round the hind- 

 margin, most distinct on the hind-wings, which have also a less distinct 

 central spot. Both sexes have white fringes, through which the wing rays 

 form dark lines ; these lines are broader and more conspicuous than are those 

 of Adonis. The underside is of a brownish-grey or slate colour with distinct 

 black spots in white rings, these spots are larger than those of Adonis, and 

 give a bolder and a more striking appearance. A row of these spots round 

 the hind-margin has an orange lunule to each, on the side nearest the base, 

 forming a wavy orange line. 



Many remarkable varieties of this species exist, especially on the underside. 



Stephens in his " Illustrations " gives the following : — 



Yar. b. Above brown, with a blue disc, and a whitish discoidal dot with a 

 black pupil : beneath, the posterior wings have a discoidal white-cinctured 

 crescent, with a waved band of seven undulated spots towards the hinder 

 margin. This is the Calcethys of Miss Jermyn. 



Yar. c. Male with the hinder-margins of all the wings above with a very 

 deep blackish fimbria ; the ocelli on the posterior wings very strong. 



