ON TIIE ARTAXERXES BUTTERFLY. 
117 
remarks :—“ From examining specimens of Polgommatus agestis, from different 
localities, I have arrived at a conclusion which will not, I fear, be coincided with 
by many of our lepidopterists. On the Downs of Sussex and Kent, agestis 
assumes what may be called its typical form. I have taken it at Ramsgate, 
Dover, Hythe, Hastings, Rye, Brighton, Worthing, Little Hampton, Chichester, 
Portsmouth, Isle of Wight, Dorsetshire, Somersetshire; and throughout this range 
it is very similar: then going upwards I have met with it at Worcester, Birm¬ 
ingham, Shrewsbury, and there an evident change has taken place, the band of 
rust-coloured spots has become less bright; at Manchester these spots have left 
the upper wings almost entirely: at Castle Eden Dean they are scarcely to be 
traced, and a black spot in the centre of the upper wing becomes fringed with 
white, in some specimens it is quite white; the Butterfly then changes its name 
to salmacis. We proceed further northwards, and the pupil leaves the eyes on 
the under sides, until at Edinburgh they are quite gone: then it is called Artax¬ 
erxes. The conclusion I arrive at is this, that agestis, salmacis , and Artaxerxes 
are but one species/' Mr. Dale, in The Naturalist , Yol. I., p. 16, says :—“ I 
have observed a few (of Artaxerxes ) having a slight black pupil to the ocelli on 
the reverse side; and one I took at Duddington Loch has it more distinct than 
some of those taken at Newcastle, where it assumes the name of salmacis; 
some resembling the former, and some differing but little from our southern species 
(agestis) or variety, and which have been supposed by some persons to be hybrids. 
From those who contend for three species, I would request opinions as to a speci¬ 
men lately taken near Langport, by Edward Paul, Esq., being evidently agestis 
(a remarkably fine 2), with a more complete white spot with a black pupil than 
any I have seen from Newcastle; and I have a specimen or two shewing a little 
white cincture to the black spot. Surely it would be going too far to make a 
fourth species, yet it is better than salmacis. I think this proves beyond a doubt 
that they are but one species; and I think this Langport variety an interesting 
capture. Mr. Bentley has a beautiful variety of agestis , totally destitute of 
black ocelli on reverse.” The discovery of the caterpillars of each, which are at 
present unknown, will, I think, be the most certain way of settling the point. 
But whether Artaxerxes be considered a distinct species, or merely a variety of 
P. agestis , the following characters will be sufficient to distinguish it:—- 
Polgommatus Artaxerxes. 
The wings generally expand about 14 lines, and on the upper surface are of a 
dark glossy brown colour, with a discoidal white spot on the disk of each of the 
anterior wings. All of the wings having posteriorly a row of five or six orange- 
red lunules. The colour of the underside is greyish brown, the anterior wings with 
a discoidal w r hite spot, beyond which is a curved band of similar spots, which occa¬ 
sionally have black pupils, succeeded by a band of orange spots, bounded on both 
r 2 
