154 LEPIDOPTERA, 



occasionally captured on the south coast, the hind wings are 

 furnished with a short and slender tail, and are striped instead of 

 spotted beneath. 



Hypochrysops, Feld., is a genus confined to Australia and the 

 adjacent islands, and remarkable for the beauty of the markings 

 of the under surface of the wings. H. Polydetus, Linn., is blue 

 (or brown, with the base blue, in the female), and the under surface 

 of the hind wings is brown, Avith rows of bright red spots bordered 

 with black and golden-green. It measures about an inch and a 

 half across the wings, which are slightly dentated. It inhabits 

 Amboyna. 



The genus Theda, Fabr., is a very extensive group, which 

 includes the butterflies known as Hair-streaks. The European 

 species are brown, sometimes with a marginal row of red spots, 

 and are adorned with a slender white line across both pairs of 

 wings, which forms a more or less distinct W at the anal angle of 

 the hind wings. Our smallest species, the Green Hair-streak 

 {Theda RuU, Linn.), which is not uncommon among brambles in 

 spring, does not much exceed an inch in expanse. It is brown 

 and tailless, and the under surface is green, with some indistinct 

 white dots. By far the larger proportion of the extra-European 

 species of this genus are American. They are generally blue, with 

 or without black borders, and are nearly always furnished with a 

 short tail. Many are marked beneath like our own Hair-streaks ; 

 but some of the larger species have the under surface of the wings 

 dusted with brilliant golden-green ; and the largest species of all, 

 T. Marsyas, Linn., a common South American insect, which some- 

 times measures nearly three inches in expanse, is of a pale blue 

 above, and the under surface is of a pale shining violet blue, with 

 several black spots slightly surrounded with white. 



Our Brown Hair-streak (Zephyrus Betulce, Linn.), which is found 

 flying along hedgerows in the south of England, and the Purple 

 Hair-streak {Z. Quercus, Linn.), which is common in oak woods, 

 repx'esent a distinct genus, which has representatives throughout 

 Europe, Asia, and the west of North America. Several of the 

 East Indian and Japanese species, which closely resemble our own 

 beneath, are green or orange above, instead of brown or blue. 



Tailed Lyccenidce of various genera are very numerous in Africa 

 and the East Indies. As an example we may notice Myrina 

 Silenus, Cram., an African species, which is rich blue, with black 

 borders. 



