LYCMNID^. 



Family LYCiENID^E. 



Butterflies of small size, and mostly of very beautiful colour, the females are 

 almost always of a duller colour than the males, l)rowns and blacks usually ; in size they 

 include the smallest known butterflies, some species being not more than half an inch 

 in expanse of wings ; often the species occur in very great quantities ; one species, 

 Liphyra hrassolis, Westwood, is as aberrant in size as it is in other characters, being 

 over three inches in expanse ; the larvse and eggs of the Lycsenidse are very distinctive 

 and denote their reality as a well-defined and separate family of the Rhopalocera. 

 Mr. W. Doherty, who gave much time to the study of the eggs of butterflies, has 

 described in detail the eggs of this family, and attempted a division of sub-families 

 based on their shape and peculiarities ; and his paper, published in the Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1886, p. 110, is worth careful study and is very instructive ; 

 he divides the family into six sub-families, and his sub-divisions correspond very closely 

 with those of Bingham, published in the Fauna of British India, Butt. ii. p. 284 (1907), 

 which are very carefully worked out on the wing venation and general construction of 

 the difierent groups. 



The larvse of the Lycsenidse have had much attention paid them ; de Niceville, 

 Davidson, Bell, Aitken and Bingham in India, and Trimenin Africa have very carefully 

 studied the life history of many species ; de Niceville says (p. 7) that some of the larvse 

 are furnished with certain organs which are found in no other larvse of Lepidoptera ; this 

 organ consists of an oval opening on the dorsal line of the eleventh segment, with lips 

 like a mouth ; these lips can at the will of the larvse be somewhat protruded, and a 

 drop of sweet liquid exuded. On the twelfth segment are two other organs, one on 

 each side, in the sub-dorsal region. In the genus Curetis, Hiibner, which does not 

 possess the mouth-like organ on the eleventh segment, these two organs are of very 

 great size and are much more developed than in any other species. Each organ 

 consists of a tall pillar, from which, when the larva is touched or frightened, is 

 instantly protruded a long tentacle furnished at its head with a brush of long parti- 

 coloured hairs as long as itself; these hairs open out into a rosette, and the tentacle is 

 whorled round with immense rapidity, producing a curious effect, probably to frighten 

 away their enemies, the worst of which are ichneumon flies ; they are not attended by 

 ants, not having the organ on the eleventh segment which exudes the sweet liquid ; in 

 those forms that have this organ the larvse are so attended, who, in return for the food 

 they obtain from the larvse, act as their most efficient guardians ; the ants gently 

 stroke the larvse with their antennse and feed on the fluid exuded, and they will 

 furiously attack anything interfering with these larvse j de Niceville gives a very 



