LYC^NA. 



307 



Expands 0'7o to 1'14 inch. Fringes of all the wings white, without spots. The male has all the 

 wings deep lilac-blue, with a narrow black border ; there is no discoidal spot on the fore 

 wings. Female brown, with an orange hind marginal border on all the wings, the hind 

 wings having a row of black spots ; the bases of all the wings are blue, which colour some- 

 times suffuses the entire wings. Underside pale grey in the male, pale brown in the 

 female. There are the usual spots and orange bands, the fore wings having two basal spots ; 

 the hind wings have an elongated white spot towards the middle of the hind margin. The 

 base of all the wings is strongly tinged with blue in both sexes. 



" Larva. Shaped like those of its congeners [onisciform], green or olive, with the head black ; 

 there is a dorsal stripe of a darker shade than the ground-colour, a lateral stripe of lightish 

 green, and on each segment three lateral stripes inclined obliquely from before backwards. 

 Feeds on various low-growing Leguminosce, especially on Ononis spinosa. 



" Papa. Dull green, tinged with brown on the wing-cases." {Lang, I. c.) 



The life-history of this species is given at greater length in Buckler's 

 ' Larvae of British Butterflies.' 



In the colour of the upper surface the Chinese male specimens of L. icarus 

 agree better with the same sex of L. hylas, Esper, from Europe, and the 

 Indian L. ariana, Moore. All the males have a series of black spots on the 

 outer margin of secondaries. The ground-colour of the female is rather 

 darker than in ordinary European specimens of this sex, or in the females of 

 L. ariana. The under surface in both sexes is darker than in typical 

 European L, icarus. 



Dr. Staudinger (Eom. sur Lep. vi. p. 162) records L. icarus from several 

 places in Amurland, and remarks on its exceptional size and great rarity in 

 that country. 



The species is not uncommon at high elevations in the neighbourhood of 

 Ta-chien-lu, and I have received it from Wa-ssu-kou and How-kow. It does 

 not appear to occur in Central China. 



With regard to ariana, Moore, I think there is little doubt that it is the 

 Himalayan representative of L. icarus. Alpheraky (Rom. sur Lep. v. p. 109) 

 records ariana from North-eastern Thibet, and remarks that examples from 

 thence do not dilfer from Himalayan specimens. 



A widely distributed species and generally common. It occurs in Europe, 

 Western Asia, Amurland, Western China, and North Africa. 



Lycsena felicis, 



Lyccena feliciSj Oberthiir, Etud. d^Entom. xi. p. 21, pi. vii. fig. 52 (1886). 



On the upper surface the wings are black as in both sexes of L. eumedon. The under surface of 



