GENERA OF AFRICAN LYCAENIDAE 



237 



Genus EICOCHRYSOPS Bethune Baker 



Eicochrysops Bethune Baker, 1924, Ann. Mag. nut. Hist. (9) 14 : 132 ; I'inhey, 1949 : 119 ; 



Swanepoel, 1953 : 70. Type-species : Eicochrysops eicotrochilus Bethune Baker, by original 



designation. 

 Cupido Schrank (partim) ; Aurivillius, [898 : 376 ; 1 < > 2 5 : 187. 

 Lycaena Fabricius (partim) ; Murray, [935 : 151, 152. [78. 



/ yes smooth ; palpi long, ascending, second segment long, laterally compressed, clothed 

 below with adpressed scales and long erect bristles, third segment slender, acuminate ; antennae 

 slender, longer than half the length of the costa, club fusiform ; thorax clothed below with 

 long white silky hair ; 5 fore tarsus unsegmented 



Wing shape, lore wing subtriangular, outer margin slightly convex ; hind wing oval, 

 t;i 1 1 less in the type-species. 



Wing venation (Text-fig. 334)- Fore wing with 1 1 veins, 



Male genitalia (Text-fig. 202). Uncus has four lobes, the median pair rolled up in the shape 

 of a cornet with irregularly toothed edges, the lateral pair nodose at their apices ; subunci 

 straight, slender, almost filiform ; tegumen very large, hood shaped, so that, when viewed in 

 profile in the natural position, the lateral lobes of uncus appear as if situated below the median 

 lobes ; vinculum very narrow ; lower fultura formed of two long slender arms ; anellus 

 absent ; valves long, narrowly digitate, with spatulate apices ; penis very small, elongate, 

 cylindrical ; vesica with fine cornuti ; uncus and lower edges of valves bearing long hair. 



The male genitalia of all the species examined closely resemble those of eicotro- 

 chilus and it is easier to distinguish the species by external characters than by their 

 genitalia. In pitsillus, distr actus, hippocrates and sanguigutta the hind wing has a 

 filiform tail at the end of vein 2, which character would suffice to exclude them from 

 Eicochrysops if their male genitalia did not resemble so closely those of eicotrochilus. 

 I illustrate (Text-fig. 203) under higher magnification half the uncus and tegumen of 

 hippocrates to show more clearly the peculiar shape of these parts. E. hippocrates, 

 incidentally has been referred, in faunistic works, to various different genera, includ- 

 ing Cupido, Everes and Cupidopsis. 



Fig. 203. Eicochrysops hippocrates (Fabricius), q* genitalia. 



