THE GENERA OF 



AFRICAN LYCAENIDAE 



(LEPIDOPTERA : RHOPALOCERA) 



By H. STEMPFFER 



CONTENTS 



Introduction ......... 



Diagnoses of the Genera, with lists of species 



Conclusion .......... 



Postscript (on the " Butterflies of Liberia ", Clench, 1965) 

 Short Bibliography ........ 



Index ........... 



Page 



3 

 8 

 264 

 277 

 283 

 300 



SYNOPSIS 



The genera of African Lycaenidae are revised and figures of wing venation and genitalia are 

 included for each genus. Lists of the species included in each genus are given. The major 

 classification of the Lycaenidae occurring in the area is rationalized. 



INTRODUCTION 



Since 1901, when Staudinger's Catalog der palaearktischen Lepidopteren was pub- 

 lished, the classification of the palaearctic Lycaenidae has undergone profound 

 modifications due to the importance now ascribed to the characters of the male 

 genitalia. In order to establish a natural classification, we accord these characters, 

 which we consider ancestral and of phylogenetic importance, precedence over 

 external characters, which though much easier to appreciate, often present resem- 

 blances that are really due to fortuitous coincidence or convergent evolution. 



In the very uniform subfamilies Theclinae and Lycaeninae, we have retained most 

 of the genera included by Staudinger, but the omnibus genus Lycaena, in which 

 species were arranged in a most arbitrary manner, has been broken up into the 

 following subfamilies : Everinae, Lampidinae, Plebeiinae, Glaucopsychinae, Zizeri- 

 inae and Lycaenopsinae. Most present day entomologists accept this classification 

 and differ only as to the systematic rank, whether genus or subgenus, to be accorded 

 to certain recently established groups of species. 



We thus have a general concept of the palaearctic Lycaenidae which is in 

 accordance with our present knowledge of systematics. The nearctic species have 

 been classified on the same lines, but when we come to the Lycaenidae of the tropical 

 regions, the situation is very different. 



The only complete surveys that we have for the Ethiopian Lycaenidae are those of 

 Aurivillius, firstly his Rhopalocera Aethiopica (1898), and secondly his account of the 

 African Lycaenidae in Seitz, Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde 13 (1914-25). In his 

 first work Aurivillius based his classification solely on external characters, wing shape 



