18 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



specimen occurred in Britain in a state of 

 nature. With this view I certainly differ, 

 and though I make no claim to be an 

 authority on such a subject, I cannot see 

 how any insect can justly be called British 

 that does not perpetuate its race on our 

 shores, and continue to live here year after 

 year without the continued introduction of 

 imported examples. If Bceticus can estab- 

 lish itself in this way, it may then claim to 

 be a British insect, at present it can only be 

 called an accidental and occasional visitor. 



P. B^TICUS, Linn. 

 Tlie Tailed Blue. The Pea-food Argus. 



B^Ticus, Linn., Bce'ticus. from Bsetica, 

 as the southern portion of Spain was called 

 in the time of the Roman Empire. 



Imago. — " Male, violet blue, with two 

 large black spots at the anal angle of the 

 hind wing. Female, brown, blue only at 

 base of the fore wings, and the inner margin 

 of the hind wings. Underside pale brown, 

 with numerous nearly straight white streaks; 

 the spots at the anal angle of the hind wing 

 black, edged below with metallic green and 

 broadly surrounded with orange." I have 

 quoted above from Kirby, as it does not 

 seem easy to improve upon it. He omits to 

 describe the tail, which is very slender and 

 rather long, proceeding from the hind mar- 

 gin, between the two spots described above. 



Larva. — " Green or dark reddish brown, 

 with a dark dorsal streak. Lateral line and 

 oblique streaks and belly paler than the 

 ground colour." — Kirby 's European Butter- 

 flies, 



Pupa.— "Attached by a belt round the 

 middle to the stem of the food plant ; it is 

 obese, and rounded at both extremities ; its 

 colour is testaceous yellow or dull red, 

 adorned with brown dots, which are par- 

 ticularly numerous about the crown of the 

 head ; there is also a continuous dark line 

 in front, extending from the thorax to the 

 anal segment ; the spiracles are black and 



plainly discernable to the naked eye." 

 Milliere, quoted by Newman. 



Food Plants.— Bladder senna iColutea 

 arlorescens) , common pea and other legu- 

 mmoscB. 



Times of Appearance. — The imago 



is on the wing from August to October ; 

 the eggs are deposited on the stalk of the 

 food plant and do not hatch till June the fol- 

 lowing year ; the larva is full fed in July. 

 It will be observed that the first British 

 examples were taken in August, the latest 

 in October. 



Habitat. — So much has been said of 

 the range of this species in the introductory 

 remarks that is unnecessary to repeat them 

 here. Staudinger gives the Mauritius and 

 the Canary Isles to the localities already 

 given. 



NEW NATURAL HISTORY 

 MAGAZINES. 



During the last two years there has been 

 a perfect plethora of monthly magazines 

 on Natural History, mostly started by boys 

 for boys. Some of them have been exceed- 

 ing creditable to their conductors, others 

 only moderately so, and some may without 

 flattery be called very bad. Copies of these 

 magazines have from time to time been sent 

 us with urgent requests for review, but as 

 this evidently meant that they should be 

 spoken favourably about, perhaps with the 

 idea of using such remarks in advertising 

 the paper in question, we have refrained 

 from noticing them until now. The extra- 

 ordinary circumstance of so many magazines 

 of one kind being commenced, almost sim- 

 ultaneously, seems to require an explanation, 

 which is not far to seek. The editor of one 

 of the penny sensational papers that are so 

 largely read by boys, took it into his head 

 one day that he would establish field clubs 

 among his readers. His wide circulation 

 enabled him to enlist a large number of 



