448 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXV. 



6. Genus — Azanus. 



De Niceville says : " But few entomological writers have used the geuus 

 Azanus ; I find, therefore, some difficulty in giving its distribution. One 

 species certainly occurs in Somali land and Aden, as well as in India and 

 Ceylon ; another seems to be purely Indian ; while a third species occurs in 

 Africa, Syria, India and Ceylon ; two more are purely African. If, as is 

 probable, the four species of Mr. Trimen's Section E of the genus Lyccena 

 (Sovith African Butterflies, Vol. ii, p. 72, 1887) belong to the gfnus Azanus, 

 then the genus will be further extended into South, and South — and North 

 — Tropical Africa. No species appear to occur in Europe." In India three 

 species are enumerated, small insects, not more than an inch in expanse ; 

 the males blue on the upperside ; one species with a somewhat broad, outer, 

 pale fuscous border, two (tibaldus, uranus) having a patch of difl'erently form- 

 ed scales on the disc of the fore wing ; the third (jesous) being uniform. 

 The females as usual have the blue coloration of the upperside more or less 

 restricted to the base, or absent altogether. The transformations of two 

 species are given below. These insects have the thorax robust and wooly, 

 the abdomen short, the antennse with a well developed spatular club. They 

 all fly well and actively and are fond of the sun and sunny places in the 

 plains ; they do not occur in the jungles or in regions of heavy rain, but are 

 always to be found in dry districts where the rainfall is under say 50", even 

 in the most desert tracts and frequent the neighbourhood of trees of the 

 genus Acacia upon the flowei'S of which their larvce feed (uirwus, ubaldus). 

 They do not fly high but keep on the wing fluttering about the trees for 

 long periods at a time. They often, similarly, flutter over the ground which 

 is usually littered with the withered and fresh, fallen flower-heads. They 

 settle on the ground, on the leaves of the trees, or twigs, etc., and sit in the 

 usual way with their wings closed over the back, although the males may, at 

 times, be seen basking in similar positions with them partially open. Ubaldus 

 is one of the very commonest of blues in Sind and the eastern dry dis- 

 tricts of Bombay wherever the foodplants occur. The larvj© have been 

 found plentifully on the flower-heads of Acacia arabica or Babul, A. Senegal 

 from which we get gum-arabic, and A. Catechu ; and, doubtless, might be 

 found on others. They are sparingly attended by ants both large and 

 amall. , 



139. Azanus jesous, Guerin.— Male. Upperside: a paler and much brighter 

 purple than in Azanus ubaldus, the dark blue tint at the base of the wings 

 more pronounced. Fore wing : without the clothing of specialized hair-like 

 scales so conspicuous in ubaldus. Hind wing : with the dark tornal spots very 

 obscure. Fore and hind wings : with only slender dark anteciliary lines, but 

 no regular brown edging. Underside: dull pale grey. Fore wing: costal 

 margin brown, a black white-encircled spot in cell, a dark chestnut-brown 

 streak between vein 12 and subcostal vein ; similarly coloured but some- 

 what paler transverse bars cross the upper discal area of the wing as 

 follows :--one on the discocellulars and three beyond, each bar edged inter- 

 nally and externally with white: below this two elongate brownish white- 

 edged spots placed (??^ echelon, and beyond a slender, unbroken, transverse, 

 postdiscal brown line ; a transverse subterminal series of black spots, each 

 surrounded with white, and a slender anteciliary dark line. In most speci- 

 mens there is also a dusky spot below the cell near the base of the wing. 

 Hind wing : an outwardly oblique short streak from base of cell, a spot 

 below it, a transverse subbasal series of four spots and a complete 

 series of subterminal spots in interspaces 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7, jet- 

 black, each spot surrounded with white ; the subterminal spot in interspace 

 • >, a terminal small spot in interspace 7, an outwardly-oblique discal line of 



