64 SOUTH-AFKICAN BUTTERFLIES. 



The known larvas of Sati/rincc feed on grasses, and are remarkably 

 difficult to detect, being coloured like tliose plants, and marked with 

 longitudinal stripes which accord with the lines of growth of the grass. 



The singular fact that the larvfB of some species of the European 

 genus Satyrus do not suspend themselves to assume the chrysalis state 

 is supplemented in South Africa by the case of Leptonetira Clytus 

 (Linn.), whose pupa has been discovered lying quite unattached on the 

 ground under a stone. 



The Satyrincc are nearly all of middle size, only a few forms 

 exceeding, and not many falling below it. Their colouring is for the 

 most part rather sombre, being generally of a darker or lighter 

 shade of brown, very commonly marked with spaces of brick-red or 

 ochreous-yellow, and usually bearing more or less distinct eye-like 

 spots (ocelli) in rings of a hue paler than the ground-colour. Among 

 the more brilliant exceptions adorned with bright or metallic hues 

 may be mentioned the blue Ptychandra Lorquinii of the Philippine 

 Islands ; the transparent, rosy- or violet-flushed South- American 

 Ectcercc ; the New Zealand Argyrophenga with silvery stripes, and the 

 New Guinea and Australian Hypocystce with silvery rings on the under 

 side ; and, most splendid of all, Argyrophorus argcnteus, from Chili, 

 whose entire surface is like burnished silver. Silvery centres, single or 

 double, of the'ocellated spots are, however, commonly met with ; and 

 a semi-iridescent gloss over the general surface of the wings is not 

 uncommon. 



The members of this Sub-Family are almost all very weak on the 

 wino-, their flight being wavering and erratic, near the ground, and 

 never long sustained. I have noticed that the more active of them 

 are those which do not possess the basal inflation of the fore-wing 

 nervures so characteristic of the group generally. The haunts of most 

 of the genera are in open ground, but a good many of the more re- 

 markable and aberrant forms inhabit woods ; some even preferring the 

 thickest shades, and not voluntarily taking flight before sunset. The 

 inexhaustible supply of grasses, which constitute the sole known food- 

 plants of their caterpillars, probably accounts for the extreme abund- 

 ance of many of the Satyrincc, familiar to every one who has traversed 

 meadow, plain, or mountain in the summer or early autumn. The 

 innumerable Satyri and Erchicc of Europe are represented in South 

 Africa by the much less numerous species of Leptoncura and Psaido- 

 nympha, several of which, however, occur in the utmost profusion of 

 individiials. The last-named genus is the largest, containing eleven 

 species, while Lcptoneura has seven representatives. Of the remain- 

 ing seven South-African genera, four — viz., Yptliima, Fhyscccneura, 

 Ccenyra, and Mcncris — have single representatives only, and the two 

 latter appear to be restricted to the extra-tropical region. Out of 

 the twenty-nine recorded species as many as twenty-one seem to be 

 endemic ; six extend into the Southern Tropic ; and two have a much 



