LYC^ENESTHES. 373 



veins and vein 8 all distinctly thickened towards base ; veins 3 

 and 4 closely approximate from lower apex of cell ; vein 8 strongly 

 arched at basal third and extended parallel and very close to the 

 costal margin up to apex of wing. Antennae comparatively long, 

 longer than half length of fore wing ; club long, gradual, acute at 

 apex ; palpi porrect, anteriorly fringed with stiff hairs, third joint 

 long, naked ; eyes hairy ; body robust. 



Key to the forms of Lycamesthes. 



a. Underside hind wing : no distinct dark brown or 



black white-encircled spot touching vein 7 near 



base L. etnolus, p. 373. 



b. Underside hind wing : a very distinct dark brown 



or black white-encircled spot touching vein 7 



near base L. tyc&nina, p. 375. 



732. Lycsenesthes emolus, Godart (Polyommatus), Encycl. Meth. ix, 

 1823, p. 056 ; de N. Butt. Ind. iii, 1890, p. 128 ; Davidson, 'ell # 

 Aitken. Jour. JSomb. N. H. Soc. x, 1896, p. 374. 

 Lycaenesthes bengalensis, Moore, P. Z. S. 1865, p. 773, pi. 41 f 

 fig.9rf. 



c? . Upperside : dull purple ; bases of the wings suffused with 

 blue : both fore and hind wings with well-marked jet-black 

 anticiliary lines, that on the fore wing expand slightly at the 

 apex. Hind wing : the costal margin above vein 7 and the dorsal 

 margin below vein 1 a fuscous brown ; irregular, transverse, sub- 

 terminal black spots in interspaces 1 to 3, those in interspaces 

 1 and 2 much larger than that in interspace 3 ; posterior basal 

 area covered with long purplish-brown hairs. Cilia of both fore 

 and hind wings brown. Underside : purplish brown with a smooth 

 satiny lustre. Fore wing : a short band on the discocellulars, a 

 transverse comparatively broad discal band with very sinuate 

 margins, and a subterminal, continuous, lunular, much narrower 

 band; the former two brown, of a shade darker than the ground- 

 colour, the subterminal band fuscous black; the band on the 

 discocellulars and the discal band edged narrowly with white both 

 on the inner and outer sides, the subterminal band very obscurely 

 similarly edged on the outer side only. Hind wing: somewhat 

 densely irrorated with black scales at extreme base and crossed 

 transversely by seven or eight very irregular lines of slender white 

 lunules ; the outer two lines outwardly concave, the others out- 

 wardly convex, each lunule of the inner line of the former two 

 series touching the corresponding lunule of the line next to it on 

 the inner side, so that in each interspace the two touching lines of 

 lunules seem to form a series of markings like X ; finally, a white- 

 edged black spot in the middle of. the dorsum and another sub- 

 terminal black spot crowned inwardly with orange in interspace 3. 

 Both fore and hind wings with slender jet-black anticiliary lines 

 and brown cilia, the anticiliary line on the hind wing edged inwardly 

 and outwardly by a white thread. Antenna? black, the shafts speckled 



