Glaucopsyche cyllarus

L. cyllarus Rott. (= damoetas Schiff.) (82 f). Male above light cyaneous blue with a violet sheen and narrow black border; female darker blue with the black border gradually shading off, so that it occupies nearly the whole outer half of the wings. Beneath silver-grey (male) or ashy grey (female), the forewing with 5 or 6 large rounded black spots, the hindwing with small ocelli and in its whole basal half with metallic blue-green dusting. In ab. dimus Bgstr. the ocelli of the forewing beneath are reduced to 4; on the other hand, they may also be increased in number, or may be elongate (= subtus-radiata Oberth.). In European Turkey and the neighbouring districts of Anterior Asia the ocelli of the forewing appear to be constantly or at least commonly enlarged, the blue also being darker; this is ab. tristis Gerh.. Throughout Central and Southern Europe, North Africa and North Asia to the Amur; absent from England and Japan. — ab. andereggii Ruhl (82 g) occurs in the Alps (perhaps also elsewhere); it is a large female-form which is above entirely black-brown, the underside being dark ashy grey, with the very large ocelli placed in pale rings.— blachieri Mill. (82 g) is a very small form from Southern France and the Yalais which has beneath only 4 ocelli on the forewing and very scanty blue-green dusting at the base of the hindwing; above darker and duller blue. …

Named in the Classical tradition. Alexis is a shepherd and poet in the poetry of Virgil and Horace.

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