FAMILY 8. LYO.ffiNID.ffi!.* 



, Leach, E. DoubL 

 LYCENIDES, Boisd. 

 LYC^NIT^:, Chenu. 

 ERYCINID^: (pars), Swains. 



POLYOMMATES, Boisd. 



POLYOMMATID.E, Swains. 



IMAGO. Head of moderate size, or rather small ; eyes 

 often hirsute ; palpi usually rather long (in some Genera 

 very long), scaly, seldom or but slightly hairy, the terminal 

 joint slender, distinct ; antenna of very variable length, 

 sometimes very gradually but often abruptly incrassate. 

 Thorax markedly robust in many Genera, but generally of 

 moderate size. Wings large, of variable outline ; fore-wings 

 usually rather truncate, hind-margin rarely elbowed about 

 centre ; hind-wings commonly produced about anal angle, 

 and often bearing from one to three tails on hind-margin, the 

 inner-margins often forming an incomplete groove about 

 abdomen ; discoidal cells apparently closed by almost obsolete 

 nervules. Legs rather short, often thick : fore-legs of $ 

 with imperfect tarsi, in many Genera consisting of but one 

 long joint. Abdomen usually slender, sometimes very short. 



LARVA. Usually more or less onisciform, broadest and 

 thickest about middle, often with dorsal humps, or with 

 fasciculate tubercles. Head and feet very small. 



PUPA. Short, thick, usually much rounded, without 

 angular projections. Attached by the tail, and by a belt of 

 silk round the middle ; or by the tail only (Dipsas sp. on 

 pi. XII of Horsf. and Moore's " Catalogue ") ; rarely buried 

 in earth ( Thecla Quercus, Linn.) 



The numerous species comprised in the Family LYCLENID^E, 

 though of small size, are, as a rule, remarkable for brilliancy 

 of colouring and exquisite variegation of marking. Richness 

 of hue is, however, usually confined to the upper-surface, 

 which in the male sex often presents one vivid field of metallic 

 orange-red or glistening blue, while in the female it is usually 

 duller, varied with spots, or much suffused with greyish or 



* The family Erycinida, mentioned in the Table of Families as represented 

 in South Africa, is omitted ; as of the two species, Pentila tropicalis, B jisd. 

 Sp., and Lemonias Pretus, Cram. Sp., which I was disposed to refer to that 

 group, the former seems more truly an aberrant Lycsenidean, and the latter, 

 given by Cramer as a native of the Cape, belongs to a genus so exclusively 

 South American that there seems but little doubt that Cramer was mis- 

 informed as to its habitat. 



Q 



