THE LARGE BLUE 
245 
on the larvae of the ants. This will be referred to later. 
Usually only a single egg is laid on the same flower-head, 
but it is not uncommon to find two, three, or even more, 
on a single head of blossoms, which in all probability are the 
eggs of different females, as I have seen only one egg laid 
at the time by the same female while fluttering from one 
flower-head to another after depositing. Egg laying extends 
over about four weeks, i.e. during the last few days of June 
and the greater part of July. 
Egg. The egg is generally laid among and fixed to the 
calyx of one of the flower-buds. 
It is very small, only 0*50 mm. 
wide and 0*27 mm. high. It is 
of a very compressed spheroid 
shape ; the crown is sunken 
and the micropyle much so, 
appearing to the naked eye as 
a dark central spot. The whole 
surface is covered with white 
raised reticulations of a net¬ 
work pattern of more or less 
rhomboidal cells, which are 
deep in structure over the side. 
The ground colour is greenish- 
blue, but the pure white reti¬ 
culations give a bluish appear¬ 
ance to the egg. The egg stage 
varies from seven to ten days 
according to temperature, eight 
days being the normal time. 
Larva. During its first three 
stages, when it feeds only on Thyme blossoms, the similarity 
between the flowers and the larvae is so remarkable that the 
little caterpillars are almost invisible. When about twenty 
days old the larva moults the third and last time, and then 
measures only 3*18 mm. in length when fully extended. On 
the tenth segment the honey-gland is now conspicuous, 
having become plainly visible in the larva’s previous stage. 
The fully-grown larva, after hibernation and still in its 
fourth stage, measures 14*8 mm. long. The/tiny black head 
The Large Blue at rest during 
dull weather (south-west wind). 
Sketched from life. 
