LYCAENIDA. TALICADA. 135 
slightly recurved, discoidal nervule from their middle ; discoital cell not extending to half the 
wing ; second median nervule from near the end of the cell, #s¢ median at more than half be- 
fore the end; sudmedian and internal nervures straight. Boby, moderate ; palpi porrect, 
flattened, second joint laxly squamose beneath, third joint long, slender ; /egs slender ; an- 
tenn@ with the club stout. Allied to Sco/itantides,’ Hiibner,=Lycena, Fabricius. ‘* Type, 
T. nyseus, Guérin.” (AZoore, 1. c.) 
In the forewing the costal nervure terminates exactly opposite the apex of the cell, the 
first subcostal nervule anastomosing with it for some little distance, the second subcostal origi- 
nates a little nearer to the base of the first than to the base of the upper discoidal nervule, 
third subcostal from midway between the base of the second subcostal and the apex of the 
wing, no upper disco-cellular nervule, the middle and lower disco-cellulars almost in one 
straight line and slightly outwardly oblique. 
This remarkable genus contains but a single species, which is confined to Southern India, 
Ceylon, Assam, and Upper Burma. The sexes are alike ; they are black on the upperside, with 
a broad vermilion patch on the hindwing occupying the lower outer third of the wing; 
the cilia prominently checkered. The underside is white, the forewing marked with several 
black bands and a prominent black spot at the end of the cell; the hindwing with numerous 
large basal black spots, the outer margin from the anal angle to the second subcostal nervule 
vermilion, enclosing a series of rounded white spots ; above the second subcostal nervule to the 
apex the margin is black instead of vermilion. Where it occurs, J believe the species is com- 
mon, but I have never seen it alive, The transformations are described under the species. 
715. Talicada nysous, Guerin, (PLATE XXVI, Fic. 179 ?). 
Polyommatus nyseus, Guérin, Dellessert’s Souv. d’un Voy. dans l’Inde, p. 78, pl. xxii, figs. 1, 1@ 
(1843) ; Scolttantides nyseus, Butler, Proc. Zool, Soc. Lond., 1881, p. 607, n. 23 ; Talicada nyseus, Moore, 
Lep. Cey., p. 97, pl. xxxix, figs. 1, 1a, tmago; 16, larve and pupa (1881); id., Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc- 
Lond., 1885, p. 133, n. 64; Lycena nyseus, Staudinger, Ex. Schmett., p. 271, pl. xciv, female (1888). 
HABITAT: Assam, Upper Burma, Sind, Orissa, South India, Ceylon, 
EXPANSE: 6, #, I'4 to I 7 inches. 
DESCRIPTION : MALE and FEMALE. “ UPPERSIDE, 40/2 wings blackish violet-brown, 
cilia spotted with white. Hindwing with a broad scarlet band occupying the lower two-thirds 
of the outer area, [with a fine black anteciliary line]. UNDERSIDE, doth wings white. Forewing 
with a broad black outer band, crossed by two submarginal series of white spots and a marginal} 
lunular line ; a black spot at the end of the cell. Aindwing with a black basal spot, three 
subbasal, three medial, and in the female a more or less perfect discal series ; the apex of the 
wing also black ; lower outer margin broadly scarlet, traversed by a row of white spots and a 
marginal lunular line, bordered with black dentate marks. Palpi and legs black above, banded 
with white ; az¢enne annulated with white.” Zui? black, tipped with white. 
‘Larva onisciform, [hairy] ; pale olive-yellow, with a slender green dorsal line and a 
Jateral row of black dots, [purplish along the spiracles]. Feeds on Bryophyllum (Thwaites). 
Pura pale olive-yellow, dotted with black,’”” the dorsal area tinted with purple ; the thorax 
humped, very hairy throughout. (Aoorve, 1. c.) General Evezard informs me that the larva 
‘feeds on the Crassulace@ order of plants, such as Bryophyllum, Calycinum and Kalanchie 
laciniata, these plants grow wild all over India.” 
“ This peculiarly distributed insect [7. myseus] is not found at all in Bombay, nor do 
I recollect once meeting with it at Khandalla, Matheran, or Egutpura; but in a particular 
spot at Mahableshwar it was swarming last March, and I have a faint recollection of its being 
equally abundant at the hill forts of Singhar and Poorundhur near Poona, while at Poona itself 
it is never wanting during the dry months. Mr. H. Wise informs me that in Kanara he 
finds it at an elevation of 1,500 feet. It lies very low and settles much on the ground ; wings 
always closed,” (Aitken, Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. vol. i, p. 218, n. 60 (1886). 
Colonel Swinhoe (1. c.) records it from “ Poona, September to June ; Belgaum, September and 
October ; a very local insect.” In Ceylon it occurs in the “ Western and Central Provinces. 
Plains and nearly up to 4,000 feet ; generally om borders of cultivated ground, apparently all 
