L U C I A limbafia. 

 Brown-winged Blue. 



Sub-fam.Thechnse. Genus Polyommatus. at. Sub-genus Lucia. SiO. 



Sub-Generic Character. 



Wings horizontally lengthened, entire: palpi very slender, ciliate 

 with long hairs, the last joint very minute, scarcely distinguish- 

 able. Antennae with a lengthened club, either cylindrical or 

 compressed. Colours obscure, moth-like. 



SptfciFic Character. 

 ffings above brown, disk of the anterior fulvous, ivith two brown 

 spots above, and three beneath, encircled with white : poste- 

 rior beneath tiaried vrith grey and white, with a central band 

 of square brown spots. 



Ilesp. Lucanus? Fab. Ent. Syst. 3, 1, p. 322. Donovan's Ind. 

 Ins. pi. 43,/. 4? 



Mus. Nost. 



This, which appears the most aberrant type of the genus> 

 immediately reminds the student ©f a dark coloured Erycinu 

 or a PhaUena, both of which families^ as being the Heliconian 

 or Krycinian type of Polyommatus, it truly represents. It is 

 at once known from E/itia, by its very peculiar palpi, ami 

 by its more lengthened wings. The antennae of three spe- 

 cies now before us,, present a remarkable difference. In two 

 of these, the club is compressed and spatulate, like that of 

 Eri/ia; but in the third, here figured, it has the cylindrical 

 form belonging to Nais. Which of these forms is typical, 

 must at present, be undecided ; but there cannot be a stran- 

 ger link of connection between Lucia and Nais, than the 

 fact of this species borrowing, as it were, the cylindrical 

 club of the latter. Without such a link, in short, the series 

 would be imperfect. 



As we cannot satisfactorily determine whether the types 

 here figured of Lucia and Erina are described in books, 

 Ave have been compelled to regard them as unnamed. This, 

 and the two other species we possess, are ali from Australia. 

 On bringing the genus Polyommatus to analogical tests, the 

 only demonstration of a natural group, we find the sub- 

 genera representing the families of the Diurnal Lepidoptera, 

 in the following manner: — 1. Typical, Polyommatus, Pa- 

 pilionida. — 2. Sub-Typical, Lycaena, Nymphalida, — 3. 

 Aberrant, Nais- Hesperidcc, Li\icia.-Erycidin<r,i\nd Erina- 

 <£atyrid<£. 



135. 



