356 LEPIDOPTERA 



in locating Lihytliea therein. If they be kept apart, it is ahnost 

 necessary to separate Lilythea also ; though possil)ly its claims 

 to he placed in Erycinidae slightly preponderate. The recently 

 described genus Oarocnemis to some extent connects Erycinides 

 with Libythaeides.^ 



Fam. 3. Lycaenidae. — Tlie front legs hut little smaller than 

 tlic others : in the male, hotvever, the tarsus, tliough elongate, is only 

 of one joint, and is terminated hy a single cla^v. No pad on the 

 front tihia. Claws not toothed. The Lycaenidae, or Blues, are, as 

 a rule, of small size, but in the tropics there are many that reach 

 the average size of butterflies, i.e. something aljout the stature of 

 the Tortoise-shell butterfly. The family is one of the larger of 

 the divisions of butterflies, considerably more than 2000 species 

 being at present known, and this number is still rapidly increas- 

 ing. Although blue on a part of the upper surface is a very 

 common feature in the group, it is by no means universal, for 

 there are many " Coppers," as well as yellow and white Lycae- 

 nidae. Many species have delicate, flimsy appendages — tails — • 

 to the hind wings, but in many others these are quite absent ; 

 and there are even tailed and tailless forms of the same species. 

 The members of the group Lipteninae (Liptena, Vanessida, 

 Mimacraea, etc.) resemble members of other sub-families of Nym- 

 phalidae, and even of Pieridae. Lycaenidae are well represented 

 wherever there are butterflies ; in Britain we have 1 8 species. 



The larvae of this family are very peculiar, being short, thicker 

 in the middle, and destitute of the armature of spines so remark- 

 able in many other caterpillars. It has of late years l)een fre- 

 quently recorded that some of these larvae are attended by ants, 

 which use their antennae to stroke the caterpillars and induce 

 them to yield a fluid of which the ants are fond. Guenee had 

 previously called attention '^ to the existence of peculiar structures 

 contained in small cavities on the posterior part of the cater- 

 pillar of Lycaena haetica. These structures can be evaginated, 

 and, it is believed, secrete a fluid ; Edwards and M'Cook are of 

 opinion that they are the source of the matter coveted by the 

 ants. The larvae are without spines. 



The caterpillars of the Blues have some of them strange tastes ; 

 more than one has been recorded as habitually feeding on Aphidae 



^ Baker, Tr. ent. Soc. London, 1887, p. 175, PI. ix. 

 - Ann. Soc. ent. France (4), vii. 1867, p. 665, PL xiii. 



