On Plate 106, Fig. 1 represents a typical male, and Fig. 3 a typical female, whilst the normal under sides of the sexes are shown in Figs. 10 and 11. The size of this butterfly ranges from one inch and a half to three-quarters of an inch. The large specimens at the bottom of the plate are from Scotland.

Scotch and Irish males often have some black spots on the outer margin of the hind wings, as in Fig. 2, but this is from Ventnor in the Isle of Wight. The female is sometimes of a uniform brown coloration, devoid of blue scales, and, with the exception of slight traces of orange on the outer margin of the hind wings, entirely without marking. On the other hand, this sex is sometimes almost as blue as the male in colour (var. cærulea), but the discal spot, outer marginal borders, and orange markings are present. Occasionally the orange spots give place to yellow ones. The discal spot on the fore wings may be encircled with bluish-white scales, and now and then this spot on all the wings is surrounded very distinctly with bluish-white. I have seen the latter form from Durham and Ireland only, but it probably occurs in other parts of the kingdom.

Quite a number of gynandrous specimens of this species have been recorded, some of them being male on the right side and female on the left, in others the reverse was the case.

On the under side the male is greyish and the female brownish, consequently the white rings around the black spots show up more distinctly in the latter sex. A not uncommon aberration is without spots between the discal spot and the base of the fore wing; this is known as icarinus. Another form that occurs fairly often has the lower basal spot united with the last spot of the outer series, as in Fig. 9, this is ab. arcua, and a modification, with the junction bar-like instead of arched, has been named melanotoxa. Very rarely the whole of the under side, except the outer margins, is free of spots (Plate 119). A specimen exhibiting aberration in this direction is shown on Plate 118, Fig. 6, whilst Figs. 1 and 3 show modifications of what is known as the streaked form.

I am indebted to Mr. E. Sabine, of Erith, for the loan of all the fine aberrations of the Blues figured on Plate 118.

On Plate 107 will be found figures of the early stages.

The egg, which is usually laid on the upper side of a terminal leaf of bird's-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) or on rest-harrow (Ononis spinosa), is whitish-green in colour, netted with glossy white.

The caterpillar is green, covered with short brownish hairs, with which are mixed some longer ones; it is wrinkled on the side, ridged on the back, and the line along the middle of the back is darker. Head black and glossy.

The chrysalis is green, with the head, wing-cases, and sometimes the hinder parts of the body, tinged with buff; thorax brighter green, rather shiny; a darker line down the centre of the body.

The plants mentioned, and especially rest-harrow, are known to be the food of the caterpillar, but eggs have also been found, in Scotland, on red clover, plantain, burnet saxifrage, and yarrow. The caterpillars are to be found, after hibernation, in April, and a second brood in June and July. Those feeding on rest-harrow seem to prefer the blossom.

This caterpillar is stated to form a cocoon, but the only approach to any such structure made by the seven individuals I had under observation was in the case of two caterpillars that pupated among leaves of Lotus, which were drawn together by the slenderest of threads. Four effected the change at the bottom of the cage and seemed to be quite free, one had climbed to the leno top of the cage and there spun a silken carpet under itself, which drew the leno together, and so formed a shallow cave in which the chrysalis rested. In every case the cast skin was attached to the tail, and so remained after the butterflies emerged.

The butterfly is to be found almost everywhere in the country, and its distribution extends throughout the United Kingdom, except, perhaps, the Shetland Isles. There appears to be only one flight in the north of Scotland and Ireland, and this occurs in June and July. In England there are two broods, and in some years probably three in the southern counties. It may be seen on the wing, in greater or lesser numbers, all through the season from May to September.

Abroad, the range extends over the whole of Europe to North Africa, and through Western and Northern Asia to Amurland and China.

The Common Blue, as well as the Chalk Hill and the Adonis Blues, are to be found, often commonly and sometimes in large numbers, in their favourite haunts. Each of them is subject to a considerable range of variation on the under side, and this seems to be of a similar character in all. Very striking aberrations are, perhaps, not often obtained, but still many modifications are to be found, and the possibility of a really good thing turning up, induces one to give attention to the business of overhauling these butterflies. A very good method of conducting this kind of work is to first ascertain the places where they chiefly congregate, and then to visit there on dull days or late in the afternoon, when the butterflies are asleep or, at all events, resting. They can then be easily examined as they sit on the long grass stems, etc. (Plate 27), but only the under sides can be viewed in this way. So to avoid passing over a good upper-side variety, it will be needful to take each specimen between the finger and thumb of the right hand, seizing the closed wings gently, but firmly, near their base, and then quickly secure the thorax from underneath with thumb and index finger of the left hand, when the upper as well as the under side becomes available for inspection. There is no reason whatever to damage the insects in any way, and those that are not required may be set free again none the worse for their short detention. Work against the wind, and to avoid a second interview, turn rejected specimens to the rear.

The Chalk Hill Blue (Lycæna corydon).

Although this butterfly (Plate 109) is, in England, fairly constant in the matter of colour, and, as regards the male especially, differences in tint are noticeable when series from various localities are ranged side by side. Silvery-blue perhaps best expresses the general colour of the male on the upper surface, sometimes very pale, and sometimes faintly tinged with greenish. The blackish border on the outer margin of the fore wings varies in width and in intensity; often there are indications of eyed spots on this margin, and occasionally these spots are quite distinct, although the whitish rings are not always clearly outlined. The black border on the outer margin of the hind wings is often narrow and external to a series of white-edged black spots, but sometimes it is broad and obscures the spots; orange markings rarely appear on this margin, but such aberrations have been taken on the Dorset coast. The fringes are white chequered with blackish on the fore wings, but with seeming continuation of the veins through those of the hind wings. The female is sooty-brown above, with a black discal spot on the fore wings, and sometimes on the hind wings also, and these spots may be ringed with blue or bluish-white; the outer marginal borders are hardly darker, and those on the fore wings are limited by a wavy pale line, which may be faintly or strongly marked with orange, but orange marking on these wings is rather the exception than the rule; on the outer margin of the hind wings there are some black spots, edged outwardly with white and inwardly with orange. The fringes are white chequered with brown, and those of the fore wings are tinged with brown. There are generally some blue scales at the base of the fore wings and over a larger portion of the basal area of the hind wings, but occasionally the whole discal area of the hind wings (Fig. 7, Plate 117), or of all the wings, var. syngrapha (Fig. 8, Plate 117), is of the male colour. The former is from Eastbourne and the latter from Wiltshire. They are rather uncommon varieties, but intermediate forms are more often met with in the same localities as well as in other parts of England where the species occurs.

On the coast of Dorsetshire a very unusual form occurs. The border of the outer margin is white instead of the usual black or blackish; the inner limit of this border is, on the fore wings, defined by a dusky shade, and the black nervules break up the border into six spots; on the hind wings four or five of the white spots are centred with black dots. The female has a similar border, but on the hind wings it is inwardly edged with orange. It has been named var. fowleri, and I have seen one example of this form without black dots in the marginal white spots of the hind wings. On the under side variation is on somewhat similar lines to that adverted to in the last species. On Plate 109, Fig. 8 represents the typical under side of the male, and Fig. 7 that of the female. It will be noticed that the male is greyer than the female. Some of the ordinary aberrations are shown on the same plate, and some rarer ones will be found on Plate 118, and of these Fig. 12, if without the basal spot on the fore wings, would represent var. lucretia.

For figures of the early stages see Plate 108; that of the caterpillar is after Buckler. The egg is flat on the top, with a slightly darker pit in the centre (the micropyle); the sides are rounded, netted, and studded, and the colour whitish-green. The above short description was taken from one of a few eggs of this butterfly sent me in August last by Mr. Ovenden, and the same egg has been figured.

Mr. Frohawk has described the egg more fully in the Entomologist for 1900. With reference to the egg-laying of the butterfly he writes: "On August 13th, 1900, I watched several females in the act of depositing, on various stems of the usual stunted herbage to be found growing on chalk downs. They frequently crawled among the plants for a distance of about a couple of feet, occasionally curving the abdomen downwards among the small plant-stems and grasses, and here and there depositing an egg. I therefore dug up portions of the turf, potted it, and placed a couple of females on each lot; they deposited ova on the 14th and 15th, on the stems of various plants; a few were laid upon the brown dead trefoil leaves, as well as on the living leaves; but the site generally chosen is the intermingled stems of both plants and grasses. Another female, placed upon a similar pot of plants, deposited about fifty ova on September 10th, nearly all being placed upon the stems, and a few upon the under side of the leaves of rock-rose; in all cases the eggs are deposited singly."

The caterpillars do not hatch out until the following spring. According to Buckler and Hellins, the only difference between the caterpillar of this butterfly and that of the next species, Adonis, is that the latter "has its ground colour deeper green, with the hairs or bristles black, while Corydon has the ground colour of a lighter, brighter green (a green with more yellow in its composition), and the hairs light brown."

The butterfly is common and often abundant in July and August, chiefly the latter month, on chalk downs in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Kent, Surrey, and Sussex; it is also found in the Newmarket district of Cambridgeshire and on one chalk hill in Norfolk, according to Barrett, who adds: "on the oolite as well as the chalk in Wilts, Dorset, Gloucestershire, and Somerset; and on limestone at Grange and Silverdale in North Lancashire, in Lincolnshire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland. It has also been taken in Essex, Hants, Cornwall, and in one locality in Glamorganshire."

Mr. Sydney Webb has stated that a dwarf form occurs pretty regularly in a valley about two miles east of Dover, but that it only appears to be found at odd times in other parts of England.

Abroad, the species is found in Central Europe, also in the Pyrenees, Aragonia, and the Balkan Peninsula.

The Adonis Blue (Lycæna bellargus).

The butterfly on Plate 110 is the Clifden Blue of Moses Harris (1775), so named because it was said to have been first observed at Clifden in Bucks. The male is of a beautiful bright blue colour, but as in the same sex of the previous two species, it is not quite constant in tint. In some specimens we find a distinct mauve shade, and in others, but more rarely, the blue colour is tinged with greenish (Plate 118, Fig. 11): the veins become distinctly black on the outer margins, and appear to run through the white fringes on all the wings. Often there are black dots on the outer margin of the hind wings. The female is dark brown, sometimes slaty-black, with orange spots or crescents on the outer margins; these are often only faintly in evidence on the fore wings, and sometimes this is the case on the hind wings also; there is a black discal spot on the fore wings, and the fringes of all the wings are white chequered with black. The bases of the wings are powdered with blue, but this is more noticeable on the hind wings. On the under side the fore wings of the male are greyish, and the hind wings greyish-brown; all the wings of the female are brownish, with a faint grey tinge in some specimens; the ornamentation is very similar to that of the Common Blue. The two figures on Plate 110, showing specimens with the wings closed, represent typical male and female, and the other figures of under sides on this plate exhibit minor aberrations from typical lines; examples of the more extreme variations will be found on Plate 118, where also are figured some uncommon aberrations in the colour of the male on the upper side.

There is often a tendency in the female to assume the colour of the male, and this is usually seen on the hind wings, but occasionally on the fore wings also. In the extreme form of this phase of variation, var. ceronus, the whole of the upper surface, with the exception of the orange-spotted borders, is almost as blue as that of the male. This is a parallel aberration to that of the Chalk Hill Blue known as syngrapha, but it seems to be somewhat rarer in this country.

Figures of the early stages will be found on Plate 111.

The egg is greenish-white, becoming rather greener in tint towards the top, which is depressed; the netting is whitish and shining, and somewhat rougher on the sides than towards and on the top.

Buckler describes the full-grown caterpillar as deep, full green in colour, covered with tiny black speckles, bearing little black bristles, which are longest on the dorsal humps and on the yellow-edged ridge above the spiracles; on the top of each of the eight pairs of dorsal humps is a deep bright yellow longitudinal dash, somewhat wider behind than in front; these dashes form in effect two yellow stripes interrupted by the deeply sunk segmental divisions; the line along the back is darker than the ground colour, and the spiracles are black. The head is dark brown, and there are two yellow dots on the first ring of the body near the head.

The chrysalis, when first formed, is greenish-brown with the wing-cases greenish, the whole afterwards becomes ochreous; the thorax and wing-cases are rather glossy, and the body is slightly hairy. Buckler states that some of his caterpillars buried themselves about half an inch deep in the loose soil, and formed a weak sort of cocoon; others, not having been supplied with soil that could be so easily penetrated, retired under the stems of their food-plants, and in angles formed by the branching stems spun a few weak threads to keep themselves in place.

The food-plant is the horseshoe vetch (Hippocrepis comosa). From eggs laid in August, the caterpillars appear to hatch towards the end of September, but do not feed up until the spring. Butterflies from these caterpillars are on the wing between the middle of May and the middle of June, thus occupying about nine months in passing through the various stages from egg to perfect insect. From eggs laid in May and June the butterflies appear in August and September. Although it is found in similar kinds of situations to those affected by the last species, and sometimes on the same grounds, it is more local, and almost confined to the counties of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex. It is, however, rather common at Ventnor and in some other parts of the Isle of Wight, and is found near Winchester. Barrett states that it is abundant at Corfe Castle, Dorset, and gives as localities for the butterfly Wotton-under-Edge, and near Bristol, near Torquay, Sidmouth, and Seaton. Its range abroad extends through Central and Southern Europe, to Armenia, Northern Asia Minor, and Western Kurdistan. It is also found in North-West Africa, where the males are greenish-blue with conspicuous black spots on the outer margins of the hind wings; this is the var. punctifera.

The Holly Blue (Cyaniris argiolus).

About the beginning of the eighteenth century this butterfly (Plate 113) was known as the "Blue Speckt," but Harris, in 1775, changed the name to the "Azure Blue." The male is a pretty lilac-tinged blue, with a narrow black edging on the outer margin of the fore wings, often only in evidence towards the tip, and a narrow black line on the outer margin of the hind wings. The white fringes of the fore wings are distinctly marked with black at the ends of the veins. The female is of the same shade of blue, or sometimes much paler (var. clara, Tutt), with a broad blackish border on the outer margin of the fore wings extending along the front margin to about the middle; this border varies in width and seems to be wider in summer specimens than in those of the earlier flight; the discal mark on the fore wings is black, but this is sometimes very faint; there is a series of black dots on the outer margin of the wings.

The egg (Plate 112) is described as whitish or bluish-green in colour.

The full-grown caterpillar has a blackish head, the body is bright yellowish-green with paler lines; eight rings from and including the second are crested with two ridges of humps, between which lies the sunk dorsal space; the whole skin of the body is velvety, with its surface thickly covered with yellowish warty granules, each bearing a minute bristly white hair. Sometimes the humps and the middle of the back are marked with rose-pink.

The chrysalis is pale brownish-ochreous with a thin blackish-brown line on the back of the brown freckled thorax; the body is marked with rather blotchy arrow-head dashes, and some larger dark brown blotches; the wing-cases are pale greyish freckled and outlined with brown, their surface is smooth and rather more glistening than the other parts, which are thickly studded with fine, short, brownish bristles. (Adapted from Buckler.)

The following is a brief summary of a paper by Mr. R. Adkin (Proc. S. Lond. Ent. and Nat. Hist. Soc. for 1896), in which he gives a most interesting account of the earlier stages of the second brood of this species.

At the time when the butterflies of the second brood are on the wing, the flower-buds of the ivy (Hedera helix) are still young, and form compact heads. The butterfly, having selected one of these heads, settles upon its top, closes her wings over her back, and bending her abdomen down and round underneath the buds, affixes an egg to the under side of one of the slender single bud-stalks. In about a week the eggs hatch. The young larva which in colour matches the buds very closely, rests on the bud-stalk with its anterior segments, which completely cover its head, pressed closely against the bud, and looks so exactly like a slight swelling of the upper part of the stalk as to make detection a matter of great difficulty, even with the aid of a fairly powerful lens. The larva is very sluggish in its habits, seldom leaving the head of the buds on which it is hatched, so long as sufficient food remains for its nourishment, or occasionally when about to change its skin. It appears to feed only at night, and its manner of feeding, which is the same throughout its life, is to eat a round hole through the outer shell of a bud, and pressing its head forward through it to clear out the soft inside of the bud. In from four to six weeks it is full-fed; it then quits the buds, and attaches itself by slender threads to a leaf, and in a few days becomes a pupa, in which state it passes the winter.

Normally the eggs of the spring butterflies are laid on the under side of the calyces of flower-buds of holly (Ilex). The caterpillars feed on the flower-buds and also on the young green berries. They are full grown in about a month, change to chrysalids, and the butterflies emerge in July and August. Among other pabula that have been mentioned are the flowers of dogwood (Cornus sanguinea), berry-bearing alder (Rhamnus frangula), and spindle (Euonymus europæus).

In confinement the caterpillars will eat young leaves of holly and probably of ivy also, but where flower-buds are available they prefer them and ignore the tender leaves.

The Rev. Gilbert Raynor, on May 18, 1901, observed a female deposit an egg on an unopened flower-bud of rhododendron in his garden; and he also mentions that he beat a number of the caterpillars of all sizes from holly during the first week of July in the same year.

Mr. Dennis reported that on October 9, 1902, all stages of the species were to be found at Earl's Colne, Essex.

Butterflies of the first flight are usually to be seen in April and May, and of the second, which is perhaps only partial and may not be represented at all, in July and August. Specimens have been observed as early as the last week of March, and, as adverted to above, as late as October. For a few years in succession the species may become increasingly numerous, and then suddenly become quite scarce for a year or two. Most probably this is the result of favourable or unfavourable weather conditions.

The taller hollies, where these grow in gardens, open woody places, on hillsides, or even in hedgerows, are frequented by these butterflies in the spring; and the ivy-clad walls, etc., are their haunts in the summer.

The species is widely distributed, and often common, over the whole of the south of England and Wales. North of the Midlands, as well as in Ireland, it is more local, and occurs, I believe, only in the first brood. Possibly in the South of Ireland there may be a second brood. Barrett states that there is no reliable record for Scotland.

Abroad, its range extends throughout Europe and Northern Asia, except the Polar Regions, to China and Japan. It also occurs in North Africa.

The Small Blue (Zizera minima).

The butterfly on Plate 115 is sometimes referred to as the "Bedford Blue" and also as the "Little Blue."

Both sexes are blackish, or sooty-brown; the male is powdered, more or less, with silvery-blue scales. The under side is greyish-white with a tinge of blue at the base of each wing, but chiefly on the hind pair; the spots are black encircled with white. As will be seen on turning to the plate, there is variation in size. Fig. 5 represents a giant race occurring in some localities, and the particular specimen depicted was taken, with many others, on the coast near Lymington, Hants; it seems to be referable to var. alsoides, Gerhard. Variation on the under side is usually in the direction of complete absence of spots, but Mr. Joy has recorded a specimen with the spots on the hind wings extended into streaks of considerable but varying length.

Figures of the early stages will be found on Plate 114.

The egg is pale greenish in colour, netted with whitish; it is laid in June on the calyx of a flower-bud, generally low down, of the kidney-vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria).

According to Buckler, caterpillars hatched on June 21 from eggs laid between the 16th and 18th of that month, and at once commenced to feed on the flowers of the kidney-vetch, and made their way to the seed, for which they evinced a marked preference. When full grown, the caterpillar is brownish, sometimes tinged with pink. The fine bristles are dark brown; there is a darker line along the middle of the back, and a line of dark marks on each side. The head is black and shining.

The chrysalis is described by Buckler as "dirty whitish-grey, approaching to drab, palest on the back of the abdomen, greyish on the head and thorax, both of which are marked with a black dorsal stripe, which is a little interrupted; on either side is a subdorsal row of short slanting black dashes. The pale ground colour is sprinkled with some very minute black specks. The head, thorax, and abdomen are hairy with bristly whitish hairs." Although the caterpillars feed up rather quickly and are full grown and apparently ready to assume the chrysalis state, they do not effect the change until the following May or June.

The butterfly emerges in about three weeks, so it will be seen that this species continues the caterpillar existence for something over ten months.

On the Continent there are two broods of the butterfly, and in England there appears to be a partial second flight in some years, as, for instance, in 1901, when captures in August were reported from Herts, Kent, Surrey, and Wilts. Its haunts are warm and sunny grassy hollows and slopes, and it is often common in such places on the chalk hills in the south, from the end of May to the end of June. According to Barrett it is scarce in the Eastern Counties; widely distributed but local in the Midland and Western Counties, even to Devon, and in Wales, where chalk or limestone is found; also in extremely restricted localities in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumberland, and Durham, and in various places in Scotland, extending as far north as Aberdeen. In Ireland it is much more plentiful, especially on the limestone of the west and on the coast hills near Belfast, and even frequents the sand-hills of the Dublin coast.

It is widely spread over Europe, except the Polar parts, and, apparently, the south of Portugal and Spain; its range extends eastward to Amurland, Mongolia, and China.

The Mazarine Blue (Nomiades semiargus).

The male is dull purplish-blue, narrowly bordered with blackish on the outer margin; the female is dark brown. On the underside both sexes are pale greyish-brown, with a bluish tinge at the base; there is a black discal spot and a series of black spots beyond, all ringed with white.

The egg is described as being white in colour and small, and round in shape.

The caterpillar is of a dingy yellowish-green, with darker lines on the back and sides; there are fine hairs on the body, and the head and spiracles are dark brown (Rühl).

It feeds in July and August on the flowers and seeds of thrift (Armeria vulgaris), kidney-vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria), and melilot (Melilotus officinalis).

The chrysalis is rather oval in shape, pale olive-green in colour when first formed, in September, but olive-brown later; it is attached by the tail to a stalk of the food-plant and has a silken girdle (Rühl).

This butterfly (Plate 115) is the cymon of Lewin, who, writing in 1795, considered it very rare. In 1828 Stephens refers to it as scarce and local, "found in chalky districts in Norfolk, Cambridge, Yorkshire, and Dorsetshire; also near Brockenhurst and Amesbury, Hants; and on Windlesham Heath, Surrey, towards the end of May and of July." Newman (1871) adds Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire, Glamorganshire, Somersetshire, and Lincolnshire. Curtis gives Leicestershire and Worcestershire. It seems to have been fairly common, and even plentiful in some years around Glanville's Wotton, Dorset, but has not been seen in that district since 1841; at Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucester, it was not uncommon up to 1858; as late as 1864 it occurred at Epworth, North Lincolnshire. Probably the latest captures in Britain were the specimens taken in Glamorganshire in the years 1874-77. Tutt mentions that the butterfly was taken near Cuxton in Kent, some thirty-five years ago, but it has not since been seen in that locality.

Occurs in May and June and again in July and August over the greater part of Europe; its range extends to Asia Minor, and eastward to Siberia, Mongolia, and Amurland.

The Large Blue (Nomiades arion).

The butterfly on Plate 117, Figs. 1-6, is the largest "Blue" found in this country. All the wings on the upper side are deep blue, and their outer margins are bordered with blackish; the discal spot, and a row of spots beyond, are black; the hind wings have a row of black dots on the outer margin, and sometimes, and especially in the female, there is a series of black dots just beyond the central area; the fringes are white. The under side is greyish tinged with blue towards the base of each wing, but covering nearly the whole of the basal third of the hind pair; the spots are black ringed or edged with white; on the fore wings there are two in the discal cell and a row of six beyond; on the hind wings there are four or five before the discal spot, and a series of seven beyond; all the wings have a double marginal series, and some black dots at the ends of the nervules. Sometimes the wings have a purplish tinge, and this is more usually so in Gloucestershire specimens. The chief variation is in the number and the size of the spots; these are occasionally only faintly in evidence, but more rarely perhaps those beyond the discal spot on the fore wings are of large size and bar or wedge-like in shape; the smaller cell-spot is often absent. A dwarf form is stated to occur at times in all localities.

The complete life-history of this species has yet to be ascertained; no one seems to be acquainted with the caterpillar after hibernation. Pretty much all that is known of the early stages has been worked out by Mr. Frohawk, who has published some very interesting accounts of his observations in the Entomologist for 1899 and 1903, and from these the following details have been obtained.

The egg (Plate 116) is bluish-white in colour, and is laid singly among the buds of wild thyme (Thymus serpyllum).

Caterpillars hatched on July 10 from eggs received the previous day; they were placed upon thyme blossoms and soon commenced to feed, one being observed to eat its way into the base of the calyx so that the forepart of the caterpillar was hidden. In its colouring and downy covering the caterpillar so closely resembles the flower-buds of the thyme that it is very difficult to detect. After the third moult (July 26) the colour is a uniform, dull, ochreous-pink; there are four rows of long curved hairs, each row composed of a single hair on each ring from the fourth to the ninth inclusive; the first three rings have each a set of three subdorsal hairs, those on the first ring curving forwards; the bases of the hairs resemble glass-like pedestals with fluted sides. The head is ochreous with dark brown markings in front. The caterpillar at this stage develops an aversion to thyme or any other plant offered to it, and seems to be anxious to hide itself in the ground.

The chrysalis, which is figured on Plate 116 (after Frohawk), is ochreous when first formed, but becomes darker gradually; the wing-cases, however, remain of the original colour, but their hind margins darken. From a chrysalis found on July 12 the butterfly emerged on July 16.

There is some evidence in favour of the supposition that this caterpillar is in some way dependent upon ants for nourishment after the third moult, if not before, but what the exact requirement may be is not known. Probably the circumstances connected with the discovery of the chrysalis in 1905 by Messrs. Frohawk & Rayward may afford a valuable clue to the direction in which their future investigation will have to be conducted. We may hope, therefore, that the mystery that has so long hung over the last stages of the caterpillar will be solved before very long.

Lewin (1795) and Donovan (1796) both refer to this as a rare English butterfly. The former states that it is on the wing in July, and is found on high chalky lands in different parts of the kingdom, having been taken on the cliffs in the neighbourhood of Dover, Marlborough Downs, the hills near Bath, and near Clifden in Bucks.

Stephens, in 1828, wrote of it as "an insect of great rarity." He mentioned the localities given by the older authors, and added that it had been taken in the Mouse's Pasture, near Bedford, in rocky situations in North Wales, and had been plentiful near Winchester.

Newman (1871) wrote, "Its 'metropolis,' if I may borrow an expression from the revered fathers of British entomology, is in South Devon; it has occurred in some abundance in Somersetshire, and on the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire; from Gloucestershire we ascend to a Midland county, Northamptonshire, in which county (at Barnwell Wold) a considerable number have been taken." One specimen was reported from Charmouth in Dorsetshire, and the butterfly has also been recorded from Herefordshire, but these are matters of ancient history. At the present time the species is only to be found in limited numbers in the Cotswolds; it seems to have become much rarer than formerly in its South Devon locality, i.e. Bolthead, near Plymouth; one never hears of it now from Clovelly, in North Devon, where, according to Dale, it was once reported to be abundant. In 1891 Messrs. Waterhouse obtained a fine series of specimens in West Cornwall, and since that time the district has been annually visited by an increasing number of entomologists. Judging from the "big bags" that are made each year it would seem that the butterfly has a very strong and widely distributed settlement in those parts.

Abroad it is distributed throughout Europe, except the Polar and the south-western parts, and is also found in Armenia, Bithynia, and South Siberia.

Our next species belongs to the Nemeobiinæ, a sub-family of Lemoniidæ = Erycinidæ. Only one member of the family is known to occur in Europe; this is Nemeobius lucina.

As the fore legs of the male butterfly are aborted, and are therefore useless for walking, the species would seem to come near the Nymphalidæ, in which the fore legs of the butterflies, in both sexes, are reduced. In its early stages, however, the species seems to be most nearly related to the Lycænidæ.

The Duke of Burgundy Fritillary (Nemeobius lucina).

This butterfly is figured on Plate 120. The male is black, with three transverse tawny bands on the fore wings; these are crossed by the black veins, and so form series of irregular spots. Those on the outer margin have black centres; on the hind wings there are three or four tawny spots on the disc, and a series of black centred tawny spots on the outer area. The female is similar to the male, but the tawny markings are wider, so that the fore wings appear to be of this colour, with a black patch at the base, two black irregular lines, and a series of black spots on the outer margin. On the under side of the hind wings there are two transverse series of whitish spots, and a series of black spots on the outer margin. The wings of this sex are always broader than those of the male, and the apex of the fore wings is not so distinctly pointed. Variation is not usually of a very pronounced character, and in a general way it consists mainly in a greater or lesser amount of black in the male, and this more particularly on the hind wings, and an increase in the tawny colour in the female; in the latter sex, outer marginal black spots are sometimes absent from all the wings. Barrett mentions two extreme aberrations. In one, a female, the usually dark spaces, bands, and veins are of an exceedingly pale brown, suffused with fulvous, so as to be comparatively indistinct; another example, a male, has the basal area of the fore wings pale, and the first transverse dark band absent.