African species of the Lycaenesthes group of Lycaenidae. 11 
erect but uneven front edge ; the fakes are very long, sharply 
curved, almost at a right angle at a third from their sockets, the 
extremity forming a small talon ; the dorsal apex is very highly 
excavated as to its fore margin only ; the furca is very short, 
divided almost from its base, and sharply curved backwards 
from its base also. The penis sheath is very “ Strymonid ” in shape, 
its hinder two-fifths being broadish, the fore three-fifths tapering 
narrowly to its orifice which suddenly expands and is somewhat 
trumpet-shaped. 
The cheeks of the tegumen are well furnished with strong, long 
hairs, the harpagines being scantily furnished with them, a few of 
which are, however, of exceptional length. 
Cupidesthes lithas, H. H. Druce. (Plate IV, fig. 4.) 
Lycaenesthes lithas, H. H. Druce, Ann. Mag. N. H., 
1890, p. 24; id. Smith and Kirby, Rliop. Exot., p. 110, 
PI. 24, ff. 8, 4 (1894); id. Auriv., Rhop. Aethiop., p. 348 
(1898). 
A species very close on the upperside to the previous one, but 
the blue is less bright, not lustrous, and in the secondaries it often 
extends up to vein 7, and generally beyond vein 6. On the under¬ 
side it differs more, the pattern is not composed of small spots, 
but of large ones, the postmedian fasciae, especially of the primaries 
consisting of very broad conjoined spots after the style of G. voltae, 
whereas G. thyrsis has the pattern more like that obtaining in 
G. robusta. There is also the subcostal spot near the base on the 
secondaries which is lacking in thyrsis. The blue of this species 
may be variable, as I have a specimen in which it is quite mauve 
in tone. The female is entirely brown in both wings, with a 
trace of white showing beyond the cell in the primaries, and 
a row of four scalloped marginal black spots in the anal area 
of the secondaries, the underside being like the male but slightly 
modified. 
Hah. Sierra Leone ; Ashanti (Adda). 
Type, Coll. Druce. 
The insect described by Grose-Smith as the female of 
this species is the male of lunulata, Trimen, a species 
wddely distributed and equally widely confused by authors. 
Writers, however, of even twenty years ago ought to be 
excused much, the material available and the means of 
identification were very different tben to Avhat they are 
to-day. The female is brown without any blue, this 
