African species of the Lyeacnesthcs group of Lycaenidae. 33 
p. 234, PI. 4, £f. 8, 9 (1866); id. Mab., Hist. Mad. Lep., 
p. 202, Pi. 27, ff. 1, 2 (1887); sichela, Hew., Ill. D. Lep., 
p. 222 (1878); id. Trimen, S. Afr. Butt., ii, p. 101 (1887); 
adhcrhal, Mab., Bull. Zool. Soc. Fr., p. 217 (1877); id. 
Butler, P. Z. S., 1893, p. 660 (1894); id. id. p. 120 (1896); 
id. Druce, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1905, p. 253; id. Auriv., 
Arkiv. Zool., ii, p. 16 (1905); Monteironis, Kirby, Hew,, Ill. 
D. Lep., p. 223 (1878); id. Druce, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 
1905, p. 253. 
Upperside: both wings slightly lustrous violaceous, with 
tennen finely dark. Secondaries with a dark terminal spot between 
veins 2 and 3. Undersurface whitish grey, almost dirty white, with 
slightly darker spots of the usual pattern. Primaries with the post¬ 
median stripe fractured outw'ards below the second spot, inwards 
below the fourth, and again inwards below the sixth spot. The 
distinguishing point of the secondaries is the presence of two small 
round dark grey sub-basal spots, one below vein 8 and one on the 
abdominal margin. The female vai’ies considerably as to the extent 
of blue on the upperside ; in some specimens there is only a trace 
of pale blue scales in the fold of the primaries, and scattered scales 
in the cell of the secondaries ; in others, the blue is quite marked 
and occasionally there is a considerable area over both wings; the 
undersides, however, all agree and follow the male pattern entirely. 
Expanse ^ 30, $ 28-34 mm. 
Hak Gaboon; Calabar; Angola; Midodoni (B.E. 
Africa), British Museum \ Sierra Leone; Northern 
Nigeria, Bassa Prov. {Coll. Bctlmne-Baker) ; Cape 
Colony; Kaffirland; Natal; Transvaal; Landana. 
Type in the British Museum. 
There has been considerable difficulty in elucidating 
the various species, but the advent of a pair of specimens 
of both sexes from Nigeria, together with the loan of 
Mabille’s type, at once showed that the synonymy as given 
above was quite correct. There should be little difficulty 
in identifying the species in the future. It is widely 
spread, but either very local in its distribution or very 
retiring in its habits. It is interesting to note that a ^ 
and ^ in my collection of this species have glabrous eyes, 
one ^ has eyes slightly hairy, and in another ^ the eyes 
are more hairy. None of the specimens are in bad 
condition, so that it is a reasonable deduction that the 
eyes are in their natural condition. 
TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1910.— PART 1. (JUNE) D 
