THE COMYNTAS BUTTERFLY. 
275 
The blue Lucia butterfly (^Polyommatus Lucia of Kirby) 
greatly resembles the preceding, but the black border of 
the fore winss in the female is not so broad, the fringes of 
the wings are spotted with black, and all the wings on the 
under side are dusky gray, with larger blackish spots, and a 
broad blackish border l)ehind. Mr. Kirby has described only 
the male of this butterfly, in the fourth volume of the Fauna 
Boreali-Americana. It is found in April and May. 
The Comyntas butterfly QPolyommatus Comyntas of Go- 
dart) is readily distinguished from the foregoing by having 
a little thread-like tail on the edo-c of the hind wind’s. The 
o o 
wings in the males are violet blue, and in the females black¬ 
ish glossed with blue on the upper side, with whitish fringes; 
there are several blackish spots around the hind margins, 
and on the hind wings near the posterior margin two cres¬ 
cents of a deep orange-color. The under sides of all the 
wings are gray, with black spots encircled with white, and 
each of the two orano-e-colored crescents of the hind wdnss 
encloses a deep black spot encircled with silvery blue. The 
wings expand about one inch. This butterfly is found in 
dry woods and pastures in July and August, and the cater¬ 
pillars live on the leaves of the Lespedeza^ which grows in 
those places. They are oval, convex, and downy, of a pale 
green color with three darker green lines, the sides of the 
body reddish, and the head black. The chrysalis, which is 
usually fastened to a leaf, is at first pale green, but becomes 
brownish afterwards; it is sparingly clothed with whitish 
hairs, and there are three rows of black dots on the back. 
The chrysalis state lasts from nine to eleven days. 
We have several more of these small butterflies with 
thread-like tails on their hind wings, but they differ from 
all the preceding species in having the knobs of the antenna© 
longer and nearly cylindrical, the eyes covered with a very 
fine down, and an oval opaque spot on the fore wings, near 
the front margin in the males. They belong to the genus 
Theda, Their caterpillars are longer and flatter than those 
