LYCAENIDAE. Ks Dr. A. Seitz. 257 



8. Family: Lycaenidae. 



The Blues are almost Uiroughuut small, often even ver> small buttertlies, which are popularly called 

 Blues on account of the blue colour being prevalent in the majority of the species, at least in the cfcf. 

 The body is usually delicate, but the wings are strong, so that there are excellent fliers in this family. 

 The blue gloss of the cfd' and many ?? is kown to be due to structure (not pigment) and has often a 

 magnificent metallic sheen. On the whole the sliape is ver>- noimal and without peculiarities, except in 

 the hindwing, which has often thin tails in the anal region. 



Head of medium size. The semiglobular eyes sometimes hairy, but usually naked, edged witli silver 

 behind. The antennae rather short, either gradually or suddenly clubbed, finely ringed with black and 

 white, and extraordinarily brittle, easily bending and cracking or breaking even in the live specimen or 

 freshly killed one. Palpi very variable in length, often different in the sexes; the 1. and 2. segments 

 usually hairy or scaled, the 3. delicate and almost naked. Anterior legs of both sexes functional, in the ? 

 with claws "to the tarsi as in the mid and hindlegs, in the cf with peculiar hooks and smaller than the other 

 legs, but not really reduced to brushes. In those Lycaenids which, as e. g. Gen/dus, suck at Aphids these legs 

 are used for stroking the Aphids (Baerow). Hindtibiae with Jnit one pair of spurs, which are often very small. 



The neuration is on the whole very constant ; the sulx'ostal of the forewing has only 2 or 3 (rarely 4) 

 branches; the cell closed in both wings, being mostly very narrow in the forewing; the hindwing with 2 

 submedian veins, often with 1 tail, sometimes 2 or even 3 small tails. The hindmargin of the hindwing 

 sometimes forms a fold for the reception of the abdomen. 



The eggs small, depressed, with a dense raised network, resembling cells. The larvae onisci- or 

 limaciform, short and broad, somewhat flattened, oval, smooth or covered with small warts or hairs, the 

 head retractile into the prothorax. On the 11. somite there is in many species a gland whose sweet secretion 

 attracts ants, which are said to remain with the larva, protecting it against parasites (the ant-guards). Also 

 species are- known whose larvae are carried by the ants into their nest and kept as a kind of domestic annnal, 

 the larvae ]nipatlng in the nest. Of other larvae it is known that they feed on insects. Most larvae live 

 on low plants, those of the first group however almost exclusively on deciduous tiees, often at a considerable 

 height above the ground. In Central Europe most Lycaenids hibernate as egg or larva. The pupa is short, 

 broad, anteriorly olitnse, the abdomen mucii curved and its segments usuall>- sirongly telescoped: usually fastened 

 liy tiie cremaster and a girth, but sojuetimes, especially in niyrmecophilous forms, the pupa free in the ground. 



The species as a rule do not vary much as regards modification into local forms. It is indeed 

 astonishing that, for instance, LirmpUlis baetioi occurs in all 4 regions of the globe without sliowing an> 

 constant geographical differences, and that Lye. kurus is found from Scandinavia to North Africa withoul 

 exhibiting any distinct geographical characters, although the individuals vary strongly in every locality. 

 Distinct seasonal dimorphism is likewise rare, but occurs in certain sjiecies (for instance in ('hfijMiphdiua nniphi- 

 clamas, tliersamon etc.). 



The variability among tlie specimens from the same district, i. e. (he tendency to produce al)errant 

 individuals, is so great that it would ])e impossible (as well as useless) to enumerate and describe all the 

 numerous aberrations mentioned in the various magazines. As on the whole the various aberrations recur 

 in nearly all the sjiecies of the respective genus, Courvoisieu proposed to employ the same name for the 

 same kind of aberration in all the species. In the dark forms of the tribe ThecUui there appears on the 

 disc of the foi'ewing commonly a yellow spot, which occasionally occupies the greater part of llie wing. 

 The Lycaenini vary particularly in the small ocelli of the underside, which may be confluent, enlarged or 

 reduced, or even obsolete. Bright-coloured forms, especially metallic ones, have above often a broadened 

 or a narrowed black margin, etc. We restrict our descriptions to those names which have already been in 

 common use for some time, and shall indicate the occurrence of similar aberrations where it appears 

 opportune. We abstain, however, from giving detailed descriptions of the whole crowd of individual forms 

 which have been described, many names being based on extremel}- minute differences. 



The family is very generally distributed. The butterflies are met with everywhere at the right 

 season, even above the snow-line and beyond the border of vegetation in the desert; but the family does 

 not extend so far north as the Nymjthalids, Pierids and Satyrids. Wherever they occur, however, they fly 

 often in abundance, in India t once observed such masses of blues that the air above the sunny roads 

 appeared to move in consequence of the numberless specimens of Lmupides ami Zufra which flitted hither 

 and thither. Almost all places have some species of Lycaeniih Some fly rather high in the air, as for instance 

 Cyaniris, and some close to the ground, as f. i. Zizera. They congregate in numbers on damp places on roads, 

 like the alpine Lycanut pherelcs and opiilete, or fly singly across the fields and over shrubs, like Lye. arioii. 



