LYC^NOPSIN^. 249 



Castalius niasana, nov. Male. Upperside pale greyish-blue ; a white transverse band from vein 6 of 

 forewLng, expands outwards above vein 3, is uniform on that wing, expands outwards in its 

 middle on the hindwing ; forewing with a black costal line ; both wings with a thin black more 

 or less macular band, white terminal line, black cilia ; wings rather transparent, nearly all the 

 markings of the underside showing through. Underside as in G. etJiion, but there is a thick 

 linear spot at the end of the cell of both wings. Expanse lj\ inches. Habitat, Nias. Type in 

 the B. M. from coll. Godman, and three other examples from the Crowley Bequest. 



Genus TARUCUS. 



Tarucus, Moore, Lep. Ceylon, i. p. 81 (1881). de Niceville, Butt, of India, iii. p. 186 (1890). 

 Bingham, Fauna of Brit. India, Butt. ii. p. 417 (1907). 



Eyes naked ; closely allied to Casialius. Forewing, cell a little longer, vein 9 

 from beyond middle of 7, costa more slightly arched. Hindwing with vein 7 from 

 apical half of sub-costal. Antennse half the length of costa of forewing, club fusiform ; 

 though closely allied to Castalius in venation and general structure, it is much more 

 widely distributed, occurring in Europe, Africa, Western Asia, Asia Minor, Persia, 

 India and Ceylon, but apparently not in the Andamans, Nicobars, or the Malay 

 Peninsula ; in so far as our researches go, it is only represented by two species in the 

 Indian region, Theoplirastu.'^, Fabricius, and Venosus, Moore ; the so-called Tarucus 

 plinius belongs to another group of the family, having hairy eyes and other material 

 differences ; in colour and pattern Tarucus differs from Castalius, the upperside of the 

 wings being always more or less of a uniform greyish-purple colour above, with black 

 spots on a white ground beneath, and therefore for the sake of convenience we think 

 it advisable to keep it distinct. 



Type, T. theophrastus, Fabricius. 



TARUCUS THEOPHRASTUS. 



Plate 634, figs. 1, ^, la, ?, lb, $ (Wet-season Brood), Ic, $, Id, ?, le, ? (Dry-season Brood), 

 lf> (J 1 Ig. ? > 1^) $ (Exti-eme Dry-season Brood). 



Eesperia theophrastus, Fabricius, Ent. Syst. iii. p. 281 (1793). 



Polijommatus theophrastus, Godart, Enc. Meth. ix. p. 658 (1823). 



Lycaena theophrastus, Lucas, Expl. Alg. Zool. iii. p. 362. Lep. pi. i. fig. 6, 6a, ^ , 6b, antennfe (1849). 

 Horsfield, Cat. Lep. E.I.C. p. 73 (1828). Horsfield and Moore, Cat. Lep. Mus. E.I.C. i. p. 25 

 (1857). Moore, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1865, p. 772. Lang, Butt, of Europe, p. 140 (1884). 



Lampides theophrastus, Butler, Cat. Fabr. Lep. B. M. p. 164 (1869). 



Tarucus theophrastus, Moore, Lep. Ceylon, i. p. 81, pi. 36, fig. 3 (1881). Butler, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, 



p. 148, and 1884, p. 484. Swinhoe, id. 1885, p. 134, and 1886, p. 438. Doherty, Journ. As. 



Soc. Bengal, 1886, pp. 122 and 132. de Niceville, Butt, of India, iii. p. 187 (1890). Davidson, 



Bell and Aitken, Journ. Bo. Nat. Hist. Soc. 1890, p. 353. Watson, id. 1891, p. 46. Betham, 



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