GENERA OE AFRICAN LYCAENIDAE 1 1 1 



Genus MYRINA Fabricius 



Myrina Fabricius, 1807, llliger Mag. 6 : 286 ; Aurivillius, 1898 : 310 ; 1922 : 377 ; Murray, 

 IQ 35 : °5 ; Pinhey, 1949 : 99 ; Swanepoel, 1953 : 169. Type-species : Papilio alcides 

 Cramer, selected by Kirby, 1870, /. linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 10 : 500. 



Eyes naked ; frons clothed with scales and short hairs ; palpi very long, parallel, densely 

 clothed with adpressed scales and hair, second segment long and robust, slightly ascending, 

 third segment conical, horizontal ; antennae short, thick, without a distinct club, blunt- 

 ended ; thorax long, robust, the patagiae long and hairy ; q" fore leg strong, femur robust, 

 hairy, tibia shorter than femur, tarsus unsegmented, finely spinose below ; mid and hind legs 

 robust, femora hairy, tibiae shorter than femora, tarsi longer than tibiae, spiny beneath, the 

 metatarsus half the length of the whole tarsus. 



Wing shape. Hind wing oval, drawn out at the anal angle, outer margin convex, a long 

 spatulate tail at the end of vein ib slightly twisted, and with a lobe at the base on its abdominal 

 margin. 



Wing venation (Text-fig. 283). 



Male genitalia (Text-fig. 100). Uncus shaped like a wide flattened triangle with the posterior 

 edge as its base, this edge bearing in the middle three pointed processes, the whole resembling 

 a trident ; subunci long, curved, rather slender ; tegumen large ; in the natural position 

 uncus and tegumen together take the shape of a hood ; vinculum narrow vent rally, without a 

 saccus ; inferior fultura shaped like a furca with long, curved arms ; valves oblong, small 

 compared with the dorsal structures, their upper process with a serrated apex, and folded 

 inwards ; penis elongate, slightly curving, open dorsally in its internal portion, external portion 

 very short ; uncus and distal portion of the valves finely pilose. 



As I have pointed out (1943, Ann. Soc. ent. Fr. 1942 : 117) the male genitalia of 

 M. ficedida are identical with those of M. silenus and it is probable that ficedula is a 

 subspecies of silenus. 



"'/-■ 



Fig. 100. Myrina silenus silenus (Fabricius), $ genitalia. 



