( 27 ) 



III. Notes on Lycaena {rede Thecla) rbjannus, teng- 

 stroemii, and pretiosa. By George T. Bethune- 

 Baker, F.L.S. 



[Bead November 4th, 1891.] 



Plate II. 



Who that has worked at the Pala3arctic Lyca-tiidce has 

 not been struck by the anomalous position of rhymnvs, 

 tengstrwmii, and pretiosa. For some time the question 

 has been in my mind, do they belong to Lyccena proper 

 (as Staudinger's catalogue has it) at all ? but until 

 recently I have not had time to investigate the subject. 



Rhymnvs was described by Eversmann as Lyctena 

 rhymnus in the Nouv. Mem. de la Soc. Imp. de Nat. de 

 Moscou, Tom. ii., p. 350, tab. 19, 12, from the Ural 

 district ; Erschoff then followed suit, when he described 

 tenyfitrannii as a Lyecena in Fedtschenkoi lieise, p. 11 ; 

 whilst, lastly. Dr. Staudinger did likewise with his 

 jyretiosa, in Stt. Ent. Zeit., xlvii. (1886), p. 209. 



Now, a little careful examination of these species, and 

 especially of tengstrannii, should at once raise the thought, 

 surely these are close allies of Thecla lunulata ; in 

 Erschoff' s insect the white crescent-shaped spots of the 

 under surface have only to be evenly joined to form the 

 precise lunulated band found in that species, which in 

 figured on the same page with tevystro'iiiii. The same 

 remark applies equally to jn-etiosa, Stgr., specially to 

 those s}^ecimens that have the markings somewhat re- 

 duced. In this respect the pattern of rJiy))tiivs is not 

 quite so similar, though it does not require much imagi- 

 nation to trace it up ; whilst it is most obviously a close 

 ally of the other two insects, and is also totally diverse 

 from the markings of any of the genus Lyeana. 



A furtlier link more recently came in my path in my 

 examination of the 3 generic organs of both these 

 genera. When I first examined my preparations of 

 Thecla, I was at once reminded of the three curious 

 divergencies in Lyeana now under consideration, and 



URANS. ent. soc. I.OND. 1892. PART I. (MARCH.) 



