LYC^ENIDJE. 55 



156. Lycsena Knysna. ^ 



Lycaena Knysna, Trimen, Tr. Ent. Soc., 3rd Series, I> 



[p. 282. 



Allied to L. Messapus, Godt. 

 Exp. lOlin. 11 lin. 



$ . Dull-violet, with a silky gloss ; hind-margin of both 

 wings rather widely bordered with blackish ; cilia broad, 

 whitish. Fore-wing : costa very narrowly edged with a white 

 line. UNDER-SIDE. Whitish-grey ; ocelli blackish, whitish- 

 ringed ; in both wings a sinuate row of ocelli beyond middle, 

 a whitish-edged fuscous streak closing discoidal cell, a distinct 

 ocellus in cell (sometimes an indistinct ocellus below it), two 

 submarginal rows of pale-fuscous, indistinctly whitish-edged, 

 lunular spots, and a thin blackish edging line, interiorly 

 faintly whitish-edged. Hind-wing : three minute ocelli near 

 base, forming with that in discoidal cell a short row across 

 wing ; base blackish-dusted. 



? . Shining greyish-brown ; inner-marginal area of both 

 wings more or less dusted with violet-blue from base. Fore- 

 wing : a fuscous line closing discoidal cell. UNDER-SIDE. 

 Quite similar to that of $ , but all the spots more conspicuous, 

 especially the marginal lunular rows. Fore-wing : spot below 

 that in discoidal cell always present, often distinct. 



A specimen of the ? (taken in copula) in my collection is darker on 

 upper-side than usual, with faint-bluish marking, and with two or three 

 faint-fuscous, outwardly whitish edged spots near anal angle : the under-side 

 much darker and browner ; the spots larger, blacker, conspicuously white- 

 edged, as are also the rows of marginal lunules ; hind-wing with an additional 

 ocellus at base, a longitudinal, conspicuous, whitish dash from disco-cellular 

 streak to inner row of lunules, of which row the three next anal angle are 

 black. Mr. W. S. M. D'Urban has met with precisely similar specimens in 

 rery distant localities, so that it would seem to be a permanent variety of 

 the female. 



Both sexes are readily distinguished from Messapus, Gpdt., by the paler 

 and more conspicuously -spotted under-side and whiter cilia; and the $ by 

 its more violet upper-side, with dark margins, four times as broad as those 

 of the $ Messapus. The orange lunule inwardly bordering a black spot near 

 anal angle of hind-wing, often so conspicuous in both sexes of L. Messapus, 

 is never found in Knysna. The $ bears considerable resemblance above to 

 the $ L. ^gon, W. V. 



Local. Waste ground and gardens. 



February (m) April (b). " September and June." D'Urb. 



A stubble-field was the favourite haunt of this species at Plettenberg 

 Bay. I have only taken a single specimen at Cape Town ; it was on flowers 

 in the Botanic Garden. Specimens from Ceylon in Mr. Layard's collection 

 do not differ from South African examples. 



" Graham's Town. King William's Town. Keiskamma 

 River, near Bodiam." W. D'Urban, in litt. 



