GENERA OF AFRICAN LYCAENID \l 179 



Genus CHRYSORITIS Butler 



Chrysoritis Butler, 1898, Proc. zool. Soc. Land. 1897 : 848. Type-species : Zeritis oreas Trimen, 



by original designation. 

 Phasis Hiibner (partim) ; Aurivillius, 1898 : 340 : 1924 : (31 ; Murray, 1935 : 107. 113, 116 ; 



Swanepoel, 1953 : I2 7- J 44- J 4 6 - 



Eyes glabrous ; vertex clothed with long brown erect hair ; palpi long, second segment 

 extending well beyond the frons, clothed above with adpressed scales and below with long 

 white hair, third segment very short with blunt tip ; antennae about half the length of the 

 costa, becoming gradually stouter right up to the poorly differentiated club, which is elongate 

 and bright orange beneath ; thorax robust, clothed below with white hair ; ' tore leg, femur 

 flattened, tibia shorter than lemur, tarsus unsegmented, finely spinose below. 



Wing shape. Fore wing costa almost straight, apex somewhat rounded, outer margin 

 strongly convex, hind wing with a small rounded projection at the end of vein ib. 



Wing venation (Text-fig. 312). Fore wing with 11 or ij veins. 



In his description of Poecilniitis, Butler stated that oreas has only 11 veins in the 

 fore wing. This assertion is repeated by Aurivillius (1924 : 429) ; it is, however, 

 incorrect. A close examination reveals that vein S is present, though short and not 

 very apparent ; on the other hand vein 8 is lacking in zeuxo and chrysantas, which in 

 consequence have only 11 veins in the fore wing. It is quite possible that vein 8 was 

 absent in the specimen examined by Butler, the character being a variable one. 



Male genitalia (Text-fig. 159). Uncus subrectangular, the distal edge slightly depressed in 

 the middle, lateral angles broadly rounded ; subunci long, robust, bent at about two-fifths of 

 their length from the base, devoid of apophyses, apex blunt, tegumen subrectangular, in situ 

 uncus and tegumen together hood-shaped ; vinculum narrow, no saccus, lower fultura shield- 

 shaped with a deep apical notch ; valves oblong with rounded apices, their upper processes 

 connected by a membrane which surrounds the penis, as is the case throughout the Phasis 

 group ; penis elongate, swollen in the middle, the external portion dilated just before the 

 obliquely truncated apex ; uncus and distal parts of the valves pilose. 



The male genitalia of zcitxo and chrysantas are of the same type as those of oreas, 

 but the distal margin of the uncus, instead of being concave, bears a weak median 

 prominence, the subunci have an apophysis and the saccus is quadrangular and very 

 prominent. 



The early stages of C. zeuxo have been described bv Dickson (1952, Trans. R. Soc. 

 S. Afr. 23 : 447, fig.). 



The two genera, Poecilniitis and Chrysoritis, are not sharply defined. The type- 

 species of Chrysoritis {oreas) has 12 veins in the fore wing, like Poecilniitis. The two 

 genera could well be united. 



List of Species of Chrysoritis 



*Chrysoritis chrysantas (Trimen), 1868. 

 *Chrysoritis oreas (Trimen), 1891. Fig. Trimen, 1906. 

 *Chrysoritis zeuxo zeuxo (Linnaeus), 1764. Fig. Trimen, 1866. 

 Chrysoritis zeuxo zonarius (Riley), 1938, Trans. R. ent. Soc. Lond. 87 : 239, fig. 



