LYCAENA. By Dr. A. Seiiz. 299 



second largest contingent of true Lycaena is presented bv North America, where 30 — 40 forms occur. 

 The more we approach the tropics the more abundant and prevalent become the Theclini, which 

 are but sparsely represented in the North. In tropical America, where there fly hundreds of T/iec2a- forms, 

 only a very few Lycaenas are found, and also in the tropics of the eastern hemisphere the Lycaenas 

 diminish so much in number that from the enormous Indian empire only about 20 forms are known, 

 which partly are even Palearctic species penetrating in Kashmir but little beyond the northern boundary 

 of India. In South Asia the genera ArJiopala, Deudorix, Nacaduba, Lampides instead have developed a 

 great abundance of species and, together with Loxura, Binduhara, Curetis, etc., which are poor in species, 

 but plentiful in individuals, contribute to the character of the tropical landscape. In the Palearctic 

 Region, however, Lycaena goes up the highe.st mountains and reachest the farthest northern latitudes. 

 Lycaena optilete occurs in Pinmark beyond the 70'^, and in the region of the eternal snow of the high 

 Alps, far above the limits of the vegetation, single L. orbitulus may be encountered, which lie on their 

 side, lethargic and apparently lifeless, but when reached by a ray of the sun suddenly sit erect and soon 

 play about over the stony waste with a lively flight. 



The true Lycaena are small or very small butterflies which in the (J-sex are mostly blue and have 

 often a magnificent gloss. The head is small, very strongly hairy; the eyes are naked or hairy, very long, 

 almost bean-shaped, edged with silvery. The frons is narrow, forming a stripe between the eyes; the 

 palpi are of medium length, porrect, not ascending beyond the vertex, scaled, the first and second segment 

 beneath provided with short thick bristle.s, the third segment naked. The antennae about half the length 

 of the costal margin, mostly distinctly ringed, thin and fragile, with an elongate, somewhat flat club, 

 which does not sharply contrast with the shaft. The thorax short and rather robust, often covered with 

 silky fur-like hair, which has a vivid blue sheen along the back in many (J^J. Abdomen of median length, 

 generally just reaching as far as the anal angle of the hindwing, more rarely longer and very exceptionally 

 shorter. The legs delicate, the tibiae spinose, the anterior tarsi of the r^,^ reduced, those of the 9? normal, 

 with small claws. The wings very normal in shape, entire, with long fringes, which are usually spotted; 

 forewing triangular, gradually becoming broader from the base, with the apex but little pointed, the 

 outer -margin convex and the hind angle obtuse. The hindwing somewhat pyriform, its outer margin 

 very evenly rounded, always without tail. — Larvae onisciform, usually green, short, with a small head 

 and broad shield-like back. Some resemble the larvae of beetles of the group of Chrysomelidae, but most 

 have bright green and red colouration, sometimes with beautifully coloured dorsal line or contrasting 

 margin. They feed on a great variety of low plants, but mostly on Papilionaceae, such as vetch, trefoil, 

 leguminosae, etc. The pupa small, elongate, rounded everywhere, smooth, immobile, resembling the seed 

 of certain plants. The butterflies from the earliest spring until the late autumn, some species in one 

 brood of short duration, others in a whole series of overlapping broods. They visit flowers and congregate 

 on damp places on roads, at the rills of the high mountains often in cloud-like numbers. They are fond 

 of meadows and open land, dry hills and sunny roads, but are hardly ever found in the dense forest. 

 Most of the species have a very wide distribution and preserve even in the most distant countries essen- 

 tially the original character. As regards individual variability most species are liable to modifications in 

 the ocelli of the underside; these ocelli may be absent or reduced or enlarged, or their number may 

 have increased; they may be ovate, elongate, or prolonged to form rays, or even confluent with one 

 another. These modifications, which have all been found in nearly every species and certainly occur in 

 all the species, have unnecessarily received names. Courvoisiee, on the other hand, proposes for the same 

 form the same designation in all the species, so that one has in each species a forma crassipuncta, privata, 

 caeca, radiata, striata, arcuata, parvijmncta, sagittifera, etc., a system of nomenclature which Tutt has 

 already carried out to a certain extent. Most Lycaenas are common butterflies. If one knows the flight- 

 places, usually the place where the food-plant occurs, it is not difficult as a rule to obtain as many 

 specimens of the forms flying there as one requires. Some species, however, require certain physiographical 

 features in their habitat, and the inaccessibility of the often very limited flight-places sometimes keeps 

 the price of certain forms at a considerable figure. As many species live in a kind of sj'mbiosis with 

 certain ants, their occurrence in a certain locality often depends on the presence of these protectors. 



L. argus L. (= aegon Scliiff., argyrotoxus Bgstr.) (78 c). This and the following species have in argus. 

 the anal area of the hindwing beneath on the black submarginal dots situated between the median bran- 

 ches and the submedian vein some metallic glittering scales which are usually not represented in our 

 figures. The upperside is deep dark blue, with a broad black border, argus is very similar to argyro- 

 gnomon, but differs in quite a number of details, of which in the various individuals sometimes one 

 sometimes another is more conspicuously developed. On the upperside the blue gloss is deeper, darker, 

 duller, with a slight violet tint and not so far extended to the margm, the latter being broader and 

 appearing blacker; the row of dark submarginal dots which occasionally appear on the hindwing above in both 

 species, there fore stands always in the black border in argus. On the underside both sexes of argus have 



