46 NATURAL HISTORY. 



is an indirect confirmation of the statement which we have already mentioned, that Miletus 

 aymethus is found in Ants' nests. 



The genus Hypochrysops, which is confined to Australia and the Malay Archipelago, contains 

 blue or orange Butterflies, rather larger than the species of Folyommalus. The hind wings are dentated, 

 but are chiefly remarkable for the gaudy colouring of the under surface, which is red in some species, 

 with yellow and silvery spots, while it is banded with green and brown, or red, green, and yellow, and 

 intersected with silvery lines, in others. 



The genus Thecla, which includes the Butterflies known as Hair-streaks, except the group to 

 which the Brown and Purple Hair-streaks belong, is the largest in the family. There are probably 

 six hundred species known at present, but it is likely that they will iiltimately be divided into smaller 

 genera. Polyommatus is not quite so large a genus, but is more compact. 



These Butterflies are exceedingly numerous in tropical America, but are poorly represented in 

 other parts of the world, and are not found at all in Africa (except on the Mediterranean coast) nor 

 in Australia, where they are replaced by other genera. They are generally rather small Butterflies, 

 of a blue or brown colour above, and with a short tail on the hind wings. The under surface is 

 brown, grey, or white, and often marked with pale lines, whence the Butterflies derive their name of 

 Hair-streaks. There is often an orange spot above or below at the anal angle of the hind wings. 

 The White Letter Hair-streak (Thecla W album), a rather uncommon species in England, is brown 

 above, and the under surface is paler, and marked with a very distinct white line across all the wings, 

 forming a large W at the anal angle of the hind wings. Nearer the margin of the hind wings 

 beneath is an orange band. Like most of the other species of the genus, this Butterfly may be 

 looked for in woods, and its larva feeds on the elm. The Green Hair-streak (T. rubi) is a commoner 



insect, found in open woods and heaths in spring and early summer, 

 flying about, and settling upon brambles. It differs from the other 

 European Hair-streaks by wanting the tail on the hind wings, and by the 

 bright green colour of the under surface. On the upper side it is 

 uniform brown. There are several South American species allied to 

 this, which are blue above. The South American Butterflies of this 

 genus present a great variety of colour and pattern on the under surface, 

 but eye-spots, which are almost universal in Polyommatus, are seldom 

 to be met with in Thecla. Some species resemble Satyrince, being streaked 

 below in such a manner as to resemble Butterflies of the genus Eupty 

 cilia. Some of the largest species expand about two inches across the 

 wings, and are most beautifully coloured on the under surface. Several 

 of these have two tails to the hind wings, and are gorgeously spangled 

 with golden green beneath, and are sometimes varied with reddish or 



GREEN HAIR-STREAK.. purplish markings. Thecla marsyas, on the other hand, is of a 

 greenish-blue above, with the costa and tip of the fore wings black, 



and the under surface is very pale shining violet-grey, marked with black spots bordered with 

 white. 



The species of Thecla have only ten nervures on the fore wings, but those of the next genus 

 (Zephyrus] have eleven, the subcostal nervure emitting two branches before the extremity of the discoidal 

 cell, and a third, which bifurcates, beyond. In Thecla, three simple nervures are emitted before the 

 end of the cell, and none beyond. The Zephyri are not numerous, and are all found in Europe or 

 Asia, except one species, which is Calif ornian. The Purple Hair-Streak (Z. quercus) is common in 

 oak woods. The male is purplish-blue, with black hind margins, and the female is brown, with a rich 

 purple blotch on the fore wings. The under side is silvery grey, with a white line towards the hind 

 margin, and some orange and black spots towards the hinder angles of all the wings. Several of 

 the Japanese and North Indian species of Zephyrus are of a beautiful brassy green on the upper side. 

 Most of the remaining genera of the Lyccenidce are found in Asia or Africa, and are blue, 

 brown, or white above, and adorned with one or two tails on each hind wing. These are generally 

 very delicate and easily broken off, and are sometimes of very great length, equalling or exceeding 

 the total length of the wings themselves. 



