300 SOUTH-AFEICAX BUTTERFLIES. 



feature it resembles Pyrgus, but, unlike that group, the ^ in Thymc- 

 liciis never exhibits a costal fold in the fore-wings, a tuft on the hind- 

 tibiae, or posterior thoracic appendages in any species. 



About thirty species are recorded, pretty evenly distributed among 

 the great zoological regions, with the exception of Australia. The 

 Ethiopian Region has yielded eight species, the Paltearctic, Nearctic, 

 and Oriental Regions six each, and the Neotropical Region five. 



The African species have a very different facies from that of the 

 European ones ; their hind- wings are apically shorter, and the terminal 

 joint of their palpi is not erected. Five are natives of South Africa ; 

 of these two, Lcpenula, Wallengr., and Macomo, Trim., are brown, with 

 ochre-yellow markings ; two, Niveostriga and Wallcngrenii, are brown, 

 with a few whitish spots in the fore-wings ; and the fifth, Barhercc, 

 Trim. , has consiiicuous pure- white spots on a brown ground, and black- 

 and-white cilia as in Pyrgus. All five inhabit the eastern side of the 

 country, and the only one known to me to extend into the tropical belt 

 is Lcpenula. Macomo ^ appears to be the least rare ; of the scarcest 

 species, Barhcra', I have seen only four examples. 



338. (1.) Thymelicus Lepenula, (Wallengreu). 



$ HesjKiia Lepenula, "Wallengr., K. S. Vet.-Akad. Haiidl., 1857 ; Lep. 



Rhop. Catfr., p. 50, n. 6. 

 (5 Pamphila? Lepenula, Trim., Rhop. Afr. Aust., ii. p. 298, n. 189 (1866). 

 Cydopides Chersias, Ilewits., Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 4th Ser., xx. p. 



327 (i877).2 



Plate XI. fig. 6 {$). 



Exp. al, ($) I in. 1-2 lin. ; ($) i in. 2^ lin. 



^ Broivn, unth wide pale ochreous-yellow marlcings. Fore-iving : a 

 large basal marking filling all discoidal cell and a shorter area between 

 median and submedian nervures, from base itself ; costa to about 

 middle and inner margin very densely to beyond middle irrorated with 

 ochreous-yellow ; a short transverse subapical and subcostal mark, ex- 

 ternally tridentate on nervules ; boneath this, and between third median 

 nervule and submedian nervure, an oblique wide discal band, externally 

 quinquedentate and internally strongly indented by ground-colour below 

 first median nervule. Hind-vnng : basi-cellular and inner-marginal 

 area clothed with some pale-yellow hairs ; in discoidal cell, near 

 extremity, a good- sized spot ; beyond it a wide irregular discal band 

 on patch, between subcostal and submedian nervures, inwardly rather 

 vaguely defined, outwardly better defined, more even, forming short 



' A near but quite distinct ally is T. Capenas (Hewits.), from the Zambesi, at once recog- 

 nised by having the nervules yellow near the superior half of the hind-margin of the fore- 

 wings on upper side. 



^ I examined the six specimens of Chersias in the Hewitson Collection, and found them 

 unquestionably identical with Lcpenula. Wallengr. 



