100 



structural features of the imago. This is better than Distant's artificial divisions 

 but there is plainly an open field here for investigation, and one which there is 

 apparentl}^ no need for great delay in occupying, since (excepting the egg) the 

 early stages of Lycaeninae appear to offer less service to the systematist than in 

 any other group of butterflies. 



What will surprise one in this volume, is the very considerable addition to 

 our knowledge of the early stages of the Lycaeninae, for excepting the Hesperidse 

 this group is in general the least known of butterflies. Yet something is 

 recorded of no less than thirty-four genera, much of it new, and in many a good 

 deal of interesting histor}^ is related. This is a great improvement on the 

 preceding volumes. One particular case, that of the pomegranate butterflies, whose 

 history was briefly and partially given by Westwood, seems valuable enough 

 to reprint for the benefit of American readers ; and another, Curetis thetis, may 

 well be mentioned here : — " The twelfth segment [of the larva] bears two most 

 extraordinary structures, which consist of two diverging, cylindrical, rigid pillars, 

 arising from the subdorsal region and of a pale green color. When the insect 

 is touched or alarmed, from each pillar is everted a deep maroon tentacle as long 

 as the rigid pillar, bearing at its end long parti-coloured hairs, the basal third of 

 each hair being black, the upper two-thirds white. The maroon tentacle with 

 its long hairs spread out like a circular fan or rosette is whirled round with great 

 rapidity in a plane parallel to the body, its use being almost certainly to frighten 

 away its enemies, as this larva, as far as I am aware, is not attended by protecting 

 ants and lacks the honey-gland on the eleventh segment present in so many 

 lycsenid larvae which are aflfected by ants." 



Ants have been found attendant upon half a dozen genera, and in many 

 cases they have been identified by Dr. A. Forel, of Switzerland. At least a dozen 

 species are concerned, and they are about equally divided between the Formicidae 

 and Myrmicidae. 



Spalgis, it appears, is another instance of a carnivorous lycaenid comparable 

 to our Feniseca, the larva associating with and feeding upon the " mealy bug " 

 of the planters, a species of Dactylopius. De Nic^ville in no way favours 

 Edwards's belief that Feniseca belongs to the Lemoniinae, and adds nothing, as 

 we had hoped he might be able to do, to Holland's suggestions that Liphyra, too, 

 might be carnivorous, though he points out that the two genera differ in their 

 perfect state in the number of subcostal nervules, and are therefore not so closely 

 allied as Dr. Holland thought. 



The seasonal dimorphism of many Indian Lycaenidae is well brought out, the 

 dry and wet season taking the place of our spring and summer ; indeed, it occurs 

 in no less than eighteen genera, and this will be a revelation to many, and seems 

 to bid fair to renovate the study of tropical butterflies. But while in India 

 proper " the seasonal forms seem to be chiefly restricted to two, a wet and a 

 dry," in the Himalayan district of Sikkim " the dry season form which occurs 

 at the end of the year differs somewhat from the dry season form which occurs 

 in the spring, so that with regard to some species there may be said to be three 

 forms — a spring, a wet season, and a winter form." Sexual dimorphism on the 

 contrary is very rare among tropical Lycaenidae, de Niceville stating that he 

 does not know positively of any case, though he suspects it in a species of 

 Zephyrus. On the authority of Doherty (a native of Cincinnati by the way, 

 working most industriously in the east), he credits half a dozen or more species 

 as mimicking others of the same or neighboring groups of Lycaenidae. Much 

 attention is also paid to the secondary sexual characteristics so far as their gross \ 

 appearances are concerned, and they are noted in no less than nineteen genera. 



