239 
COMMON BLUE BUTTERFLY. 
Polyommatus Alexis. 
(See Vignette.) 
Pap. Alexis, Hubner. — Pap. Icarus, Lewin, pi. 38 Pap. 
Argus, Donovan, iv. pi. 143. $ (two upper figs . ) — Blue 
Butterfly, Harris Pap. Hyacinthus, Lewin, pi. 37. f. 4-6, 
var. — Polyom. Thestylis, Jermyn, var. 
About the size of the preceding, which it very- 
much resembles, but is readily distinguished by the 
colour of the surface, which is bright lilac-blue in 
the male, and by the fringe of the wings being white 
and unspotted. The hinder border is narrowly mar- 
gined with black ; the anterior edge of the upper 
wings is white, and the hairs on the body and base 
of the wings incline to that colour. The female is 
generally brown above, powdered with blue towards 
the base of the wings (sometimes, however, the sur- 
face is entirely purplish-blue), and ornamented with 
a posterior fulvous band, somewhat ocellated on the 
hinder pair, each lunule having a central black spot. 
Beneath, brownish-ash colour, with the base in- 
clining to green, the upper wings usually having two 
ocelli near the body, a slender central streak lying 
transversely, and a curved row of ocelli near the 
