LYCiENID.E. 123 



182. (5.) Hypolycaena Lara, (Linnaeus). 



Papilio Lara, Linn., Mus. Lud. Ulr. Reg., p. 320, n. 138 (1764); and 



Syst. Nat., i. 2, p. 791, n. 328 (1767).! 

 $ Papilio lolaus, Cram., Pap. Exot., iii. pi. cclxx. ff. f, g (1782). 

 $ Papilio Gorgias, Stoll, Suj^pl. Cram. Pap. Exot., jjl. xxxiii. fT. 5, 5D 



(1791)- 

 $ $ Polyommatus Lara, Godt., Enc. Meth., ix. p. 675, n. 179 (1819). 

 Thecla lolaus and Thecla Lara, Wallgrn., K. Sv. Vet.-Akad. Handl., 



1857 ; Lep. Rhop. Caffr., pp. 34, 35- 

 S $ CI ini soph anus Lara, Trim., llhop. Afr. Anst., ii. p. 260, n. 116 



(1866). 

 ILjpoli/ccena Lara, Hewits., 111. Diurn. Lep., Suppl., p. 13 (1869). 



^xp. al., {$) 10 lin. — I in. 2h Hn. ; ($) i in. 1-6 lin. 



Glistening palc-femiginous, darker on margins, with a brilliant- 

 pearly hasal lustre. Fore-wing : at posterior angle, a good-sized white- 

 ringed black spot, often surmounted by one or two indistinct wliite 

 rings, of winch the lower is sometimes distinct and filled with black. 

 Mind-wing : at anal angle two spots like those of fore-wing, but smaller ; 

 above them, along hind-margin, a series of whitish rings, becoming 

 obsolete towards costa ; beyond middle, occasionally an indistinct 

 transverse row of whitish lunules. Cilia wliite, interruj)ted with fus- 

 cous at extremities of nervules. Under side. — Whitish- grey. Fore- 

 icing : tinged with brownish, except on costa and hind-margin ; pos- 

 terior-angular spots distinct, whitish rings above suffused, all inte- 

 riorly edged by a brownish line ; a pale-edged disco-cellular terminal 

 streak ; beyond middle, a macular, brownish, transverse, outwardly 

 white -edged streak, sharply curved at costa. Hind-wing : disco- 

 cellular streak and streak about middle (much sinuated) usually in- 

 distinct ; no spots at anal angle or on hind-margin ; an irregular, 

 submarginal, suffused brownish fascia, broadest on discoidal nervule ; 

 near base two or three indistinct spots. 



The male has the fore-wing at apex and the hind-Aving at anal 

 angle more acuminate than in the female, but the difference is not 

 striking in the typical smaller form prevailing about Cape Town and 

 the neighbouring districts, whereas in some of the larger examples 

 from Kaffraria, Natal, and the Transvaal, it is very pronounced — 

 almost as much as in Stoll's figure above quoted. This acute-winged 

 larger ^ also has the basal lustre usually more developed and slightly 

 bluer in tint, and as a rule shows with tolerable distinctness the 

 whitish lunules across the disc of the hind-wing. The $ accompanying 

 this $ (the paired sexes taken near Potchefstroom on 2 8tli February 

 1872 were sent me by Mr. W. Morant) is generally larger and less 

 rufous in tint than the South-Western examples, — in two individuals 



^ As I have pointed out (Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1S68, p. 287), the Lara of Donovan 

 {Nat. Repos., ii. pi. 71, 1824) has nothing to do with Linn6's species ; it is a small Satjride, 

 and placed by Westwood and Butler in the genus Ypthinia, near the Oriental Y, Lisandra 

 (Cram.) 



