40 SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 



(except the sub-basal spots and liind-marginal spot of liind-wing, of 

 which the latter is more developed than in $) dull-brownish, the 

 whitish ones faint and dull. 



On the upper side this obscurely-tinted Lyccena is not unlike the male of 

 the South-European L. Admetus, Esp., but on the under side both the ground- 

 colour and pattern ai^e very different. On the whole, L. ignota comes closest 

 to L. Letsea^ Trim., but is distinguishable by its darker colouring, and total 

 want of yellowish hind-wing lunules on the upper side, and by the very 

 imperfect development of the whitish markings on the under side ; it also 

 exhibits nothing of the tendency so general in Letsea to imperfection of the 

 discal row of spots on the under side of the fore-wing. 



Mr. T. Ayres discovered this butterfly in the Transvaal, and in 1879 the 

 South- African Museum obtained from him three examples of each sex. The 

 only other specimens that have come under my notice are two males taken 

 by Mr. J. M. Hutchinson, who captured them in the interior of Natal, and 

 kindly presented them to me in the year 1881. 



Localities of LyccKna ignota. 



I. South Africa. 

 E. Natal. 



h. Upper Districts. — Estcourt {J. M. Hutchinson). 

 K. Transvaal. — Potchefstroom and Lydenburg Districts {T. Ayres). 



136. (18.) Lycaena Letsea, Ti-imen. 



cJ , 5 Lyccena Letsea, Trim., Trans. Ent. Soc. Lend., 1870, p. 362, pi. vi., 

 ff. 3, 4- 



Exp. al, Q) I in. 3 1-4 lin. ; (?) 1 liu. S^-6 lin. 



^ Shining hrownish-grcy ; cilia sliglitly jialcr, not variegated. Fore- 

 wing : a terminal disco-cellular streak sometimes faintly visible. Hind- 

 wing : on hind-margin, on each side of the first median nervule, a 

 very faint yellowish lunula, forming a ring with a broken hind-mar- 

 ginal white line, of which the superior is large, and marked externally 

 with a black spot. In two examples these markings are blurred and 

 scarcely traceable ; no tail. Under side. — Grey ; ordinary markiyigs 

 small and neatly defined, resembling those of L. Messapus, Godt. Fore- 

 wing : lower p)ortio7i of transverse roiv of wliite-ringed black spots beyond 

 middle almost always loanting, the usual number of spots present being 

 four (in one example there are but three, while in another there are five, 

 with the faint trace of a sixth on one side only). Hind-wing : a faint 

 pale-bluish suffusion over basal portion ; yellow lunules more deeply 

 coloured and much better marked than on upper side, the black dot of 

 the superior one more or less dusted with silvery-blue. 



$ Similar ; slightly darker ; cilia whiter than in $. Fore-wing : 

 disco-cellular lunule plainer than in $, but still indistinct. Hind- 

 wing : yellow lunules broader and brighter, the black dot strongly 

 marked ; in one (the largest) example there is a double row of indis- 



