GENERA OF AFRICAN LYCAENIDAE 267 



Paraslanga : well developed, subtriangular, no expansion of the 



anterior margin. 



Egumbia : fairly well developed, a rounded depression in the 



posterior margin, a rounded expansion of the anterior margin. 

 Subunci : — Long, robust and curved in Euliphyra, absent in the other genera. 



Vinculum : — Prolonged cephalad to form a large rounded saccus in all genera. 

 Lower fultura : — Present in all four genera. 



Valves : — Reduced in size in Euliphyra, well developed in the other genera. 



Penis : — Small, elongate, subcylindrical in Euliphyra, more robust and 



enclosing numerous cornuti in the other genera. 

 Thus we see that, although the male genitalia are not identical, there is no radical 

 divergence from the type. As a complementary character we may note that the 

 fore wing always has 12 veins, of which vein 7 is stalked on 6 in Euliphyra but arises 

 independently in the other genera. In my opinion the sub-family Liphyrinae is a 

 homogeneous group, though the genus Euliphyra, both by its venation and by its 

 male genitalia, seems more closely related to the Indo-Australian genus Liphyra 

 than to the other three Ethiopian genera. 



Of the Ethiopian genera with a segmented fore tarsus in the male, there remain 

 Lachanocnema and Thestor, two genera that cannot be included in the Liphyrinae. 

 Their male genitalia show at first glance one striking difference, viz : the presence 

 in Thestor of two long, curved, pointed processes on the posterior margin of the uncus 

 but, as I have already pointed out, such median expansions of the uncus have little 

 systematic value ; for instance, they recur in some species of palaearctic Thecla and 

 Chaetoprocta, which cannot for that reason alone be separated generically from allied 

 species. Apart from this, the male genitalia of Lachnocnema and Thestor are very 

 similar ; tegumen subrectangular, subunci curved, long and rather slender, vinculum 

 narrow and with a saccus, valves oblong with peculiar articulated processes, penis 

 long, slightly curved and tapering gradually in its external portion ; also the 

 venation is almost identical, except that vein 7 of the fore wing arises independently 

 in Lachnocnema, whereas it is stalked low down on vein 6 in Thestor. Finally, 

 species of these two genera resemble one another to some extent in their outward 

 appearance with their stout bodies and dull colours, which remind one of the 

 Hesperidae. Bethune Baker (1924 : 203) had already pointed out the close relation- 

 ship of these two genera which I propose to unite in the subfamily Thestorinae. 



We now have to deal with the genera in which the fore tarsus of the male is 

 unsegmented, and these compose the greater part of the family. In order to group 

 them into subfamilies, we shall have recourse in the first place to characters derived 

 from their male genitalia. 



In Alaena Boisduval, Telipna Aurivillius, Pentila Westwood, Ornipholidotos 

 Bethune Baker and Liptenara Bethune Baker the ventral elements have undergone 

 an important modification. The valves, instead of being independent organs 

 articulated to the vinculum close to the saccus, have become mere expansions of, and 

 more or less separated from, the vinculum, symmetrical in Alaena and Telipna, 

 always asymmetrical in Pentila, Ornipholidotos and Liptenara. In these last three 



