RURAJLIDES (THECLIDES). 85 



querciis belong to quite different sections of this tribe is certain, but 

 only a close study of the more or less subtropical species to which they 

 are allied can put the matter right. Niceville's " Thecla group " 

 (Butts, of India, iii., pp. 14 et seg.) contains apparently very divergent 

 material, the Strymonids or Theclids proper, the Ruralids or 

 Zephyrids, the Chrysophanids, and other allied groups. He says (op. 

 tit., p. 296) : " The sixth division that I have made in the Indian 

 Lycaenidae, I have called ' the Thecla group,' and it contains eighteen 

 genera, which may be divided into two subgroups, the first containing 

 six genera, which, as a rule, possess one short tail to the hindwing 

 from the termination of the first median nervule, though there are 

 some exceptions, the tail being sometimes absent ; the second, con- 

 taining twelve genera, which all possess two short tails (under half-an- 

 inch in length) to the hindwing in both sexes, though one aberrant 

 genus, Zesius, Hb., has three tails in the ? .... The genera 

 of the first subgroup are — Thecla, Fab., Zephyrus, Dalm., Enaspa, 

 Moore, Chaetoprocta, Nicev., Chrysophanus, Hb.,and llerda, Dbldy. ; of 

 the second subgroup— Zesius, Hb., Dacalana, Moore, Arrhenothrix, 

 Nicev., Camena, Hew., Maneca, Nicev., Mota, Nicev., Aphnaeus, Hb., 

 Tajuria, Moore, Suasa, Nicev., Thamala, Moore, Hypolycaena, Feld., and 

 Chliaria, Moore." Such a grouping as this appears to be of very 

 little value ; it is quite clear that most of these genera are quite out- 

 side the subfamily Ruralinae as we understand it. 



Scudder gives (Butts, of New England, ii., pp. 798-9) the following 

 general diagnosis of the group : — 



Imago.— Colour dark brown. Club of antennae usually increasing in size 

 throughout most of its extent, very long and very slender, from two to three times 

 as broad as the stalk (occasionally a little more than that), and from five to eight 

 times longer than broad. Patagia very long and slender, usually four or five times 

 longer than broad ; third superior subcostal nervure of forewings not forked ; tarsi 

 armed beneath with an irregular mass of spines on either side ; fore tarsi of the S 

 armed at the tip with a pair of spines, only slightly larger and more curved 

 than the others ; paronychia of other legs simple ; pulvillus small but prominent. 

 Upper organ of $ abdominal appendages with very broad alations, expanded 

 laterally rather than posteriorly ; clasps straight, unarmed, tapering generally to a 

 very delicate point ; intromittent organ of exceptional length, apically flaring. 



Ovum. — Tiarate, about equally truncate above and below, the flat or sunken 

 portion of the upper surface, including, together with the micropylic pit, fully one- 

 fourth, sometimes more than one-half, the diameter of the egg, regularly and very 

 profusely studded with high and rather coarse prominences of varying character, 

 connected by a lower, almost equally coarse, tracery, within which the pit-like cells 

 are situated ; micropylic pit very deep with steep walls. 



Larva (newly-hatched). — Head smooth, distinctly narrower than the prothorax ; 

 thoracic and abdominal segments of about equal width ; the hinder segment of the 

 abdomen fused and fully twice as long as those immediately preceding it, furnished 

 a little behind the middle with a large circular coriaceous depression ; the prothorax 

 similarly furnished with a lozenge-shaped, laterally-produced, coriaceous shield. 

 Abdominal segments furnished with regular series of tall conical papillae, bearing 

 spiculiferous hairs, which extend to a certain extent upon the thoracic segments, 

 but on them lose, in part, their serial character ; on the abdominal segments there 

 is always found a laterodorsal series, consisting of two or more, bearing long 

 curving hairs directed, to a greater or less extent, backward ; while beneath the 

 spiracles is a compound series of from three to five longer and shorter, generally 

 straight and outwardly directed, hairs. Between the laterodorsal series and the 

 spiracles is a lateral series of smooth, hemispherical, naked lenticles, and on the 

 last compound abdominal segment a curving series of four or five similar lenticles 

 of uneqiial size. 



Larva (adult). — Body slightly slenderer than in the other groups ; segments 



