210 
LYCAENIDAE 
and had passed unidentified until Mr. Pickard Cambridge 
added the Bloxworth specimens to the British list. Since 
1885, for a lapse of forty-six years, E. argiades was lost sight 
of in the British Islands. On September 1st, 1931, Baron 
Bouck, while collecting in Sussex, captured a female specimen 
of E. argiades resting on a flower-head of Scabious. At the 
time (he was taking Polyommatus teams to examine for 
aberrations) from the worn condition of the E. argiades , he 
looked upon it as an unusual aberration of P. icarus ; when 
he showed it me shortly afterwards, I was surprised to see 
it was E. argiades. By its poor condition it had obviously 
been on the wing for some considerable time. This recent 
capture makes the sixth occurrence of the Short-tailed Blue 
in this country during the past forty-eight years ; conse¬ 
quently this little butterfly is the rarest of the casual migrants 
to Britain ; unless we take into account the reported capture 
from time to time of three or four specimens of the Scarce 
Painted Lady (Pyrameis huntera). 
Haunts and Distribution. — E. argiades has a very wide 
geographical range extending over central and southern 
Europe, northern Asia, Amurland, Corea and Japan. 
Although this is a common Continental species, frequenting 
heaths and rough, grassy openings in forests, and occurs as 
near our coasts as Brittany, it must be regarded as only a 
very casual visitor to our shores. Whether its occurrence 
has been accidental or voluntary cannot be proved, but 
because three specimens were captured in August, 1885, it 
is probable that an immigration of these butterflies took place 
that year. 
Time of Appearance. — In Brittany E. argiades is double- 
brooded, but in other European localities there are three 
broods in the year. The specimens of the first brood, known 
as ab. polysperchon , from larvae that have hibernated are 
smaller than those of the second brood, and are on the wing 
in May. The second brood occurs in July and August and 
is the true E. argiades. 
The following descriptions are from eggs obtained from a 
female taken in the south of France in July. 
Egg and Egg Laying.—In south-west France Furze (Ulex 
europaeus) is apparently the chief plant selected by this 
