48 SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 



nervular rings. Forc-^viiuj : a spot in cell, towards extremity ; beneath 

 it a similar usually rather larger one ; ordinary disco- cellular lunula 

 black with white bordering ; discal row of spots strongly incurved on 

 second median nervule; first and second spots of row on costa, respec- 

 tively before and about middle, minute but very distinct and rather 

 widely apart. Hind-vnng : a spot at base ; a transverse row of four 

 spots before middle ; disco-cellular closing lunule narrow, of the ground- 

 colour, white-bordered ; discal row strongly elbowed on second subcostal 

 nervule ; a straight white ray runs longitiLclinally along radial nervtde 

 from disco-cellular terminal lunule to row of sagittate marks ; near 

 anal angle, two small blackish spots enclosed by lunules of the two 

 hind-marginal rows. 



$ Darh-lroivn, iisually more or less marked ivith violaceous on lower 

 ^arts of discs and towards bases. Hind-wing : dusky spots of hind- 

 marginal row, as in ^, more or less apparent in violaceous marked 

 specimens. Under side. — Usually a little more brownish than in $ ; 

 the spots even more distinct, and the white ray of hind- wing broader. 



Variety, ^ and $. — Under side darker than usual ; the hind-wing 

 with based and discal sjwts almost obsolete, but with the white ray very 

 broad and conspicuous. One $ example has the violaceous on upper 

 side bluer than usual and largely developed. 



iTrtft.— Pinetown, Natal {$ W. Morant, 1869; $ [2] J. H. 

 Bowker, 1879). 



This species is allied to L. Lysvmon, but is readily recognised by the much 

 more conspicuous spotting of the under side, with the white ray exhibited by 

 the hmd-wing.i 'j'j^g mj^ie differs also from that of Lysimun in the decided 

 pmk tmge of the upper side, and the absence of the dusky border of the hind- 

 wing. The female has the upper side m.vich darker than in Lysimon, and the 

 violaceous colouring is deeper and not so blue in tint. 



This is the butterfly noted in my Rlwpalocera A/n'cce Austral is (ii. p. 255) 

 as probably a "permanent variety" of the female L. Knysna, mihi { = Lysi- 

 mon, Tliibn.). At that time (1866) I had not distinguished the male of the 

 form, although the female described was taken in copuld by myself at Pletten- 

 berg Bay in February 1859, and so a male (probably worn) must have passed 

 through my hands. From the Tsomo River, in Kafirland Proper, Colonel 

 Bowker forwarded, only a few months later in 1866, a specimen which I could 

 not doubt was the male ; and next year, in Natal, I met with several examples 

 of both sexes. It was not, however, till 1870 that I found the butterfly pretty 

 commonly near Graham stowii, and at Highlands (on 30th January) captured 

 the paired sexes. 



There is nothing remarkable in the habits of this little species. It is 

 rather socialjly disposed, and little groups are fomid flitting about grassy spots 

 on hill-sides. 



^ This white ray, which wholly or in part appears in so many of the European species of 

 Lyccvna, does not occur in any known South-African representative of the genus except the 

 one under notice. In this one, however, it seems to be always present in both sexes, judging 

 from thirty-two specimens before me, although in one male it is reduced to a line merely. 



