9 o 
INSECTS. 
wine's in the male sex of various shades of blue; those of the female, on the other 
hand, being usually brown, shot with a bluish or purple tinge. The larvae are 
wood-louse-shaped, and feed mainly on grasses of various kinds. The common 
blue ( L. alexis ) is one of the most abundant of British butterflies, whose white- 
fringed, pale blue upper side and speckled under side, in the male, are familiar to 
GROUP OB' TROPICAL BUTTERB’LIES. 
1, Scarce swallow-tail, with larva and chrysalis ; 2, Map-butterfly, spring brood ; 3, Larvse ; 4, Summer 
brood ; 5, Chrysalis of same. 
everyone. The male is figured on the top right corner of the coloured Plate. 
Of the many blues found in England, such as the silver-stud, the chalk-hill, the 
holly blue, and the little or Bedford blue, the Clifden blue (L. adonis )—the azure 
blue of many authors—is the most beautiful. It occurs not infrequently, though 
locally, upon the Chalk downs of the southern coasts, and in some other localities. 
A figure of the male is given in the illustration on p. 89. The wings are of a 
much brighter blue than those of L. alexis. 
