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LYC^NA I. 



LYC^NA HETERONEA, 5-8. 



Lyc(ena Ileteronea, Boisduval, Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, 1852, p. 298. 



Male. — Expands 1.4 inch. 



Upper side violet blue, Avitli a strong pink reflection, silvery blue at the ex- 

 treme edge of each wing ; immaculate ; the hind margins narrowly bordered 

 with black ; fringes white. 



Under side grayish-white ; primaries have a sub-marginal row of brown spots, 

 those next apex often obsolete, and a tortuous row across the disk ; a bar at the 

 extremity of the cell, two spots within the cell and one below, on sub-median 

 interspace. Secondaries sometimes immaculate, but most often with an obsoles- 

 cent sub-marginal row of spots, and another row across the disk ; a streak at the 

 end of the cell and three points near base. 



Body above blue, beneath gray-white ; legs white ; palpi white with fuscous 

 hairs at tip ; antennae fuscous annulated with white above, whitish beneath ; club 

 fuscous. 



Female. — Same size. 



Upper side yellow-brown, with pale lunules along the hind margin of seconda- 

 ries, which are however sometimes obsolete ; the spots of the discal row on 

 under side of each wing, and also the basal .spots, re-appear on the upper side, 

 and are distinct even when faint or obsolescent beneath. 



This insect marks the passage of Lyctena into Chrysophanus (Polyommatus) as 

 stated by Dr. Boisduval, the female bearing a close resemblance to the female of 

 C Sirius. 



Heieroiiea is found in Colorado and California, and probably in the intervening 

 States. 



Mr. II. Edwards says: "It is certainly not exclusively a mountain species, 

 and its I'ange extends from close to the sea-shore near San Francisco to the high 

 peaks of the Sierra Nevada. I have found it most commonly in open places or 

 meadows in the middle of the pine forests of the mountains, and particularly 

 about Lake Talioe. I also met with it in the Yosemite Valley. It is never, how- 

 ever, found in large nundiers. and may be called one of our rare species." 



