79 



of Salmacis on the underside. These larvse were all alike, and in no respect 

 distinguishable from larvse of Artaxerxes found at Arthur's Seat, and pre- 

 viously reared by Mr. Buckler. 



POLYOMMATUS iEGON. 

 Silver-studded Blue. 



^Egon, W.V. iE'gon, a Roman Shepherd, Yirg. Eel. iii. 2. 



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

 arid two lines. The male has the upper surface of the wings of a deep pur- 

 plish blue, with dusky hind margins, and white fringes. The female is brown, 

 sometimes much suffused with blue, and has a row of orange lunules at the 

 hind-margin of the hind-wings, most distinct at the anal angle. The under- 

 side is bluish-grey in the male, greyish-brown with bluish base in the female, 

 and has a marginal band of fulvous spots, and three rows of black spots in 

 narrow white rings. On the underside of the hind-wings, near the edge, is 

 a row of metallic spots of a bluish tint, shining like polished silver, from 

 these Moses Harris named it the "Silver-studded Blue." Some striking 

 varieties of this species have been observed. In one, captured by Mr. Hat- 

 chett, at Coombe Wood, the upper surface of all the wings is of a pale fulvous 

 tawny colour, like that of Satyrus pamphilus. Mr. Briggs has an exceedingly 

 pale specimen, and I have one with the right wings male and the left wings 

 female. In another, taken by Mr. Haworth, in salt marshes near Holt, Nor- 

 folk, and thence named by him P. maritimus, the ocelli on the disc of the 

 underside of the wings are elongated into those on the middle of the wing, 

 being almost confluent with the following row of spots. To a specimen of 

 this variety, the Eev. W. Kirby applied the manuscript name of Alcippe, but 

 Mr. Stephens applies that name to another, and apparently very distinct 

 variety, of smaller size, having the wings narrower, blue above, with a broad, 

 black margin to all the wings, the underside of the male of a deep greyish or 

 drab colour, the ocelli very distinct in the female, and the oblique series on 

 the posterior wing consisting of four. This is probably the Algidion of Ger- 

 hart. The variety Leodrus, Hub., is brown, and has the orange band very 

 distinct on the upper surface of all four wings. The variety Bella, H.S., 

 found in Asia Minor, has the underside of the wings paler than the type, and 

 a row of marginal spots. I have a brown variety of the female which has the 

 marginal row of spots wanting, and replaced on the lower wings by a mar- 

 ginal row of white rings. 



The egg is rather large in proportion to the size of the butterfly. It is 

 white in colour, of a circular form, flattened and depressed in the centre both 



