I.YCJENIDM. 255 



156. Lycsena Knysna. 



Lycaena Knysna, Trimen, Tr. Ent. Soc, 3rd Series, I» 



[p. 282. 

 Allied to L. Messapus, Godt. 

 Exp. lOlin.— 11 lin. 



$ . Dull-violet, with a silky gloss ; liind-margin of both 

 wings rather widely bordered with blackish ; cilia broad, 

 whitish. Fore-wing : costa very narrowly edged with a white 

 line. Under-side. — Whitish-grey ; ocelli blackish, whitish- 

 ringed ; in both wings a sinuate row of ocelli beyond middle, 

 a whitish-edged fuscous streak closing discoidal cell, a distinct 

 ocellus in cell (sometimes an indistinct ocellus below it), two 

 submarginal rows of pale-fuscous, indistinctly whitish-edged, 

 lunular spots, — and a thin blackish edging line, interiorly 

 faintly whitish-edged. Hind-iving : three minute ocelli near 

 base, forming with that in discoidal cell a short row across 

 wing ; base blackish-dusted. 



? . Shining greyish-brown ; inner-marginal area of both 

 wings more or less dusted with violet-blue from base. Fore- 

 wing : a fuscous line closing discoidal cell. Under-side. — 

 Quite similar to that of $ , but all the spots more conspicuous, 

 especially the marginal lunular rows. Fore-wing : spot below 

 that in discoidal cell always present, often distinct. 



A specimen of the ? (taken in copula) in my collection is darker on 

 upper-side than usual, with faint-bluish marking, and with two or three 

 faint-fuscous, outwardly whitish edged spots near anal angle : ihe under-side 

 much darker and browner ; the spots larger, blacker, conspicuously white- 

 edged, as are also the rows of marginal lunules ; hind-wing with an additional 

 ocellus at base, a longitudinal, conspicuous, whitish dash from disco-cellular 

 streak to inner row of lunules, of which row the three next anal angle are 

 black. Mr. Vi . S. M. D'Urban has met with precisely similar specimens in 

 rery distant localities, so that it would seem to be a permanent variety of 

 the female. 



Both sexes are readily distinguished from Messapus, Godt., by the paler 

 and more conspicuously spotted under-side and whiter cilia; and the ^ by 

 its more violet upper-side, with dark margins, four times as broad as those 

 of the $ Messapus. The orange lunule inwardly bordering a black spot near 

 anal angle of hind-wing, often so conspicuous in both sexes of L. Messapus, 

 is never found in Knysna. The $ bears considerable resemblance above to 

 the $ L. JEgon, W. V. 



Local. Waste ground and gardens. 



February (m) — April (b). " September and June." — D'Urb. 



A stubble-field was the favourite haunt of this species at Pletfenberg 

 Bay. I have only taken a single specimen at Cape Town ; it was on flowers 

 in the Botanic Garden. Specimens from Ceylon in Mr. Layard's collection 

 do not differ from South African examples. 



*' Graham's Town. King William's Town. Keiskamma 

 River, near Bodiam." — \V. D'Urban, in litt. 



