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II. Notes on a new genus of Lycsenidse. By Lionel 

 DE NiCEVILLE, F.L.S., C.M.Z.S., &c. 



[Eead December 4th, 1889.] 



I HAVE asked my friend Mr. Distant to exhibit at a meeting 

 of the Entomological Society a twig of walnut, on which 

 will be found numerous egg-masses laid by a lycaenid 

 butterfly. I have proposed a new generic name for this 

 species, which was described as long ago as 1865, by 

 the late Mr. Hewitson, as Dipsas odata. 1 have called 

 it ChcEtoiwocta, with reference to the immense tuft of 

 long hairs which clothe the end of the abdomen of the 

 female butterfly. I think it is a good genus, as in 

 neuration it differs considerably from Zepltyrus, Dalman, 

 the genus to which it is most closely allied. With the 

 walnut-branch I have sent a pair of specimens of the 

 imago of this little butterfly, which strongly reminds one 

 of Zephyrus (Thecla auctorum) qitercus, Linnaeus, the 

 common " Purple Hairstreak." Like it, C. odata is 

 purple alone, that colour being rather more restricted to 

 the base of the wings in the female than in the male. 

 The under surface is silvery greenish-grey, banded and 

 spotted with a darker colour. The butterfly is found, 

 as far as I know, only in the north-western hilly portions 

 of the Indian Empire, at elevations of from 5000 to 10,000 

 feet above the sea. It is single-brooded, flying from 

 May to July, and is only found where walnut-trees grow, 

 on which its larva feeds. In the day time it flies but 

 little ; when disturbed on beating a walnut or neigh- 

 bouriDg tree, it " flops " off of one leaf on to another, 

 resting with closed wings on the upper surface only. 

 But in the late afternoon it rouses itself, flies backwards 

 and forwards and round and round the walnut trees with 

 great rapidity, and it is then that couples may frequently 

 be taken together. If the end of the abdomen of the 

 female be examined, it will be found to be furnished 

 with a large closely-packed mass of long hair-like scales 



TRANS. ENT. SCO. LOND. 1890. — PART I. (APRIL.) 



