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.
Larger Image
Pl. 110
Adonis Blue.
1, 2, 4, 5, 9 male; 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 female.
