no 
ON THE ART A XERXES BUTTERFLY. 
Vol. I., p. 27 5, by Mr. William Gardiner, Jun ., who states that “this littk 
Butterfly, once esteemed by entomologists as an object of the greatest possible 
rarity, and still considered as a very local species, occurs rather plentifully every 
season at the East end of Wills-braes, about a mile to the westward of Dundee, 
on the banks of the Tay. The locality is a precipitous bank, overlooking the 
river, and covered with a profusion of Grasses and wild flowers, among which 
Spircea filipendulce , Geranium sanguineum , Rosa spinosissima , and Helian- 
themum vulgare , hold a conspicuous place.” I have now much pleasure in 
introducing to entomologists other two localities. On the 20th and 21st of July 
this year, I found this little Butterfly in considerable abundance on a small hill 
called the Golden Hill, on the property of Berry Hill, in the parish of Abdie, 
Fifeshire. The hill is used as pasture-ground for cattle, and the Grass is very 
short; but there is also a considerable number of wild flowers, many of which 
were then in blossom. The other locality is in the neighbourhood of Anstruther, 
in the south of Fife, on the Frith of Forth, where it was taken this summer, but 
not in any abundance, by Mr. Henry Goodsir. They do not move with such 
rapidity as any of the other species of Polyommatus I have met with, and are 
therefore much more easily captured; but, like other species, they are almost 
constantly engaged in combat with each other, so that many of the specimens 
are very much worn. In Jardine’s Naturalist’s Library , Entomology, Vol. III., 
plate 34, fig. 4, it is figured with an orange-red band on the upper surface of both 
pair of wings ; and in Wood’s Index Entomologicus , plate 3, fig. 74, it is figured 
with red lunules only on the posterior wings. Among my specimens are ex¬ 
amples of both of these, with this difference, that instead of having a red band, 
as represented in the Naturalists Library , there are four or five orange-red 
lunules on the posterior margins of both pairs of wings. The orange-red lunules 
are stated in the Naturalist’s Library to be very indistinct on the posterior wings. 
In some of my specimens there is a small white spot on the disk of the posterior 
wings on the upper side. In the figure in the Naturalist’s Library the underside 
is represented with a continuous band of orange-red around the margins of all the 
wings; while in all my specimens it is distinctly separated into spots. In the 
figure also none of the white central spots on the under side have pupils, w T hereas 
in a few of my specimens some of these white spots have a black pupil. There 
has been considerable difference of opinion among entomologists as to whether 
Polyommatus agestis , P. salmacis , and P. Artaxerxes form three or only one 
species ; but as I have never seen specimens either of P. agestis or salmacis , I 
will only make the two following quotations from observations on this subject, by 
Messrs. Newman and Dale, two distinguished entomologists, and then leave the 
reader to judge for himself, whether there are three or only one species. Mr. 
Newman, in the Entomological Magazine , Yol. II., p. 515, has the following 
