LYC.EXID.E. 13 



more or less witli blue. The under side varies from pure-white to 

 many shades of grey and brown as its ground, while the dai-ker pattern 

 constantly consists, in both fore and hind wings, of a central spot or 

 lunule, a discal row or chain of spots, and a submarginal and hind- 

 marginal row of spots or lunules. These markings, in those cases 

 where the ground is not white, are edged or ringed with white ; and 

 the pattern is traceable in every variety of irregularity and confluence 

 throughout the very numerous species. The hind-wings are further 

 characterised by a sub-basal series of dark round sjDots, usually ringed 

 with white, and by one or more round black spots centred with metallic 

 silvery-blue or green, and edged inwardly by an orange lunule, near 

 the posterior angle. 



It is by no means easy to define the limits of species in this genus, 

 and lepidopterists differ widely as to the limits permissible to simple 

 variation. Between four and five hundred species have been described, 

 and of these probably nearly four hundred will be recognized ; while 

 many new forms will certainly be discovered as remote and little-known 

 countries come within the range of systematic collecting. The Palre- 

 arctic, Oriental, and Australian Regions appear to be approximately 

 about equally rich in Lyccvnm, each possessing between eighty and 

 ninety species, the Oriental being apparently a little richer than the 

 other two. The Nearctic Region comes nest, with about seventy 

 species ; and then the Ethiopian with fifty-nine. The Neo-Tropical 

 Region is, on the contrary, extremely poor, yielding but fifteen or 

 sixteen kinds ; but it is, on the other hand, amazingly rich in the 

 not distantly allied genus Thccla, of which fully 450 South-American 

 species have been described. Lycccna has an almost universal distri- 

 bution, ranging in latitude from the far Arctic parallel of 81° 45' 

 {L. Aquilo, Boisd.) to Chili (Z. Sibylla, Kirby), and in longitude lite- 

 rally round the globe. Oceanic islands mostly have one or more repre- 

 sentatives of the genus ; and even the poverty-stricken (in butterflies) 

 New Zealand possesses two. As far as at present known, the genus 

 is more fully developed in Southern than in Tropical Africa, 47 

 species being recorded from the former and 32 from the latter; 

 but this is very probably not the real state of the case, as the 

 smaller butterflies are quite unknown from the greater part of the 

 huge tropical area. Of the known South- African Lycamce, 27 appear 

 to be peculiar to the sub-region ; 19 of the remaining 20 are 

 recorded from South-Tropical Africa ; and one (Messapus, Godt.) 

 from North (but not South) Tropical Africa. Of the 19 just men- 

 tioned, 14 extend through both African tropics, and another (Gaika, 

 Trim.) inhabits both South-Tropical Africa and Continental India and 

 Ceylon ; two (Tdicanus, Lang, and Trochilus, Frey.) range into North 

 Africa, Southern Europe, and the south-western extremity of Asia ; 

 Lysimon, Hiibn., to the latter wide distribution adds India and Java ; 

 and Bcetica, Linn., the most dominant species in the genus, nearly all 



