Volume 10, Plate XXXIV / Entomology (Insects)

Brown Argus, Durham Argus & Artaxerxes Butterflies

Polyommatus Agestis, P. Salmacis & P. Artaxerxes

1. Brown Argus Butterfly. Spanning about an inch, it is dark brown with a silky gloss in both sexes, all the wings with a hind band of deep red spots and the fore pair a small central black spot. Beneath it is greyish-brown with eyes and a rufous band, the hind wings with a white blotch; it occurs plentifully in Sussex, Kent, and beyond, flying in June and August.
2. & 3. Durham Argus. Silky brown above with a macular orange-red band on all the wings and a white spot on the fore pair, sometimes wanting in the female. Beneath it is greyish-brown with white and orange spots edged by dusky crescents; found in some plenty at Castle Eden Dean near Durham and on the limestone near Newcastle, where it appears in July.
4. Artaxerxes Butterfly. Dark brown and glossy, each fore wing bears a white discoidal spot and all an orange-red hind band, faint on the upper wings, the under spots nearly all without black pupils. Long known only from Arthur’s Seat near Edinburgh, it was once so prized that collectors journeyed north for it; now taken in plenty there, it appears in July.