LYCMNIDM. 3 



not a few nor unimportant. The anal lobe in some cases is divided from the rest of 

 the margin by a cleft of greater or less depth ; this has proved a useful character, though 

 it obviously fails in some cases. 



The filaments which are attached to the margins of the secondaries offer the greatest 

 diversity in the extent of their development and are at their maximum in T. cypria 

 and its allies, evanescent in T. eurytulus, and wholly absent in such varied species as 

 T. gadira, T. agricolor, and T. agra. As a rule, they are more fully developed in the 

 female than in the male. When only one is present it is attached to the end of the 

 first median branch ; when there are two the second proceeds from the second median 

 branch. They are an extension of the membrane which lies between the nervures of 

 the wing, and are furnished with ciliae similar to the outer margin ; but they receive no 

 support from the nervules to which they are attached, as the latter do not enter them, 

 but stop short at the margin of the wing. So varied are these filaments in their deve- 

 lopment, that we only see our way to make use of them in our classification in a very 

 subordinate sense. 



The neuration of wings. — The species of the fauna of which we are now treating divide 

 themselves into two groups : in one the subcostal nervure of the primaries emits two 

 branches, in the other three ; the former contains Thecla and its immediate allies, the 

 latter the Blues (Lyccena) and the peculiar form we describe below. As regards the 

 branches themselves it is only amongst the Blues that we find any very special cha- 

 racters. In such species as L. comyntas the first branch coalesces for some distance 

 with the costal, and diverges again towards the margin ; in L. exilis the union is com- 

 plete to the end of the costal nervure. In Thecla, in by far the majority of cases, both 

 branches are emitted before the end of the cell. Eegarding the upper discocellulars, 

 the presence or absence of which is dependent on whether the middle discocellular 

 meets the upper radial or the subcostal, there is considerable diversity. As a rule, in 

 those species which have a stigma or brand at the end of the cell it is plainly visible, 

 whilst in those which have not this brand it is very short or absent. 



The alar stigma. — We have used this term to designate a peculiar patch of closely 

 matted scales found widely, but not universally, distributed throughout the genera 

 Thecla and Theclopsis. It consists of a circular patch of such scales situated usually 

 at the end of the cell of the primaries, and there is frequently a second similar patch 

 beyond it. They are found only in the male sex, and when present have considerable 

 influence in modifying the relative position of the nervures in that portion of the 

 wing. In not a few species a somewhat similar spot occurs, consisting of dark scales 

 placed at the distal end of the cell, but they are not matted as in the true stigma, nor do 

 they influence the neuration. It not unfrequently happens that, where no stigma occurs, 

 at the end of the cell a peculiar arrangement of scales is found on the under surface 

 of the primaries below the median nervure, and sometimes there is likewise a corre- 

 sponding patch on the secondaries between the costal and subcostal nervures. Other 



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