64 
SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 
Tlie known larvae of Satyrince feed on grasses, and are remarkably 
difficult to detect, being coloured like tkose plants, and' marked with 
longitudinal stripes which accord with the lines of growth of the grass. 
The singular fact that the larvge of some species of the European 
genus Satyrus do not suspend themselves to assume the chrysalis state 
is supplemented in South Africa by the case of Leptoneicra Clytus 
(Linn.), whose pupa has been discovered lying quite unattached on the 
ground under a stone. 
The Satyrince are nearly all of middle size, only a few forms 
exceeding, and not many falling below it. Their colouring is for the 
most part rather sombre, being generally of a darker or lighter 
shade of brown, very commonly marked with spaces of brick-red or 
ochreous-yellow, and usually bearing more or less distinct eye-like 
spots (ocelli) in rings of a hue paler than the ground-colour. Among 
the more brilliant exceptions adorned with bright or metallic hues 
may be mentioned the blue Ptychandm Lorq^uinii of the Philippine 
Islands ; the transparent, rosy- or violet-flushed South- American 
Hetcerce ; the New Zealand Argyroiolienga with silvery stripes, and the 
New Guinea and Australian Hypocystce with silvery rings on the under 
side ; and, most splendid of all, ArgyropJwrus argenteus, from Chili, 
whose entire surface is like burnished silver. Silvery centres, single or 
double, of the ocellated spots are, however, commonly met with ; and 
a semi-iridescent gloss over the general surface of the wings is not 
uncommon. 
The members of this Sub-Family are almost all very weak on the 
wing, their flight being wavering and erratic, near the ground, and 
never long sustained. I have noticed that the more active of them 
are those which do not possess the basal inflation of the fore-wing 
nervures so characteristic of the group generally. The haunts of most 
of the genera are in open ground, but a good many of the more re- 
markable and aberrant forms inhabit woods ; some even preferring the 
thickest shades, and not voluntarily taking flight before sunset. The 
inexhaustible supply of grasses, which constitute the sole known food- 
plants of their caterpillars, probably accounts for the extreme abund- 
ance of many of the Satyrince, familiar to every one who has traversed 
meadow, plain, or mountain in the summer or early autumn. The 
innumerable Satyri and Erehim of Europe are represented in South 
Africa by the much less numerous species of Leptoneura and Pseudo- 
nymplia, several of which, however, occur in the utmost profusion of 
individuals. The last-named genus is the largest, containing eleven 
species, while Leptoneura has seven representatives. Of the remain- 
ing seven South- African genera, four — viz., Yptlmna, Physcmneuraj 
Ccenyra^ and Meneris — have single representatives only, and the two 
latter appear to be restricted to the extra-tropical region. Out of 
the twenty-nine recorded species as many as twenty-one seem to be 
endemic ; six extend into the Southern Tropic ; and two have a much 
