LYC/ENID^. 
13 
more or less with blue. The under side varies from pure- white to 
many shades of grey and brown as its ground, while the darker pattern 
constantly consists, in both fore and hind wings, of a central spot or 
lunule, a discal row or chain of spots, and a submarginal and hind- 
marginal row of spots or lunules. These markings, in those cases 
where the ground is not white, are edged or ringed with white ; and 
the pattern is traceable in every variety of irregularity and confluence 
throughout the very numerous species. The hind-wings are further 
characterised by a sub-basal series of dark round spots, usually ringed 
with white, and by one or more round black spots centred with metallic 
silvery-blue or green, and edged inwardly by an orange lunule, near 
the posterior angle. 
It is by no means easy to define the limits of species in this genus, 
and lepidopterists differ widely as to the limits permissible to simple 
variation. Between four and five hundred species have been described, 
and of these probably nearly four hundred will be recognized ; while 
many new forms will certainly be discovered as remote and little-known 
countries come within the range of systematic collecting. The Pala3- 
arctic, Oriental, and Australian Eegions appear to be approximately 
about equally rich in Lycmnm^ each possessing between eighty and 
ninety species, the Oriental being apparently a little richer than the 
other two. The Nearctic Kegion comes next, with about seventy 
species ; and then the Ethiopian with fifty-nine. The Neo-Tropical 
Region is, on the contrary, extremely poor, yielding but fifteen or 
sixteen kinds ; but it is, on the other hand, amazingly rich in the 
not distantly allied genus Theda, of which fully 450 South-American 
species have been described. Lyccena has an almost universal distri- 
bution, ranging in latitude from the far Arctic parallel of 81° 45' 
{L. Aquilo, Boisd.) to Chili (Z. Sibylla, Kirby), and in longitude lite- 
rally round the globe. Oceanic islands mostly have one or more repre- 
sentatives of the genus ; and even the poverty-stricken (in butterflies) 
New Zealand possesses two. As far as at present known, the genus 
is more fully developed in Southern than in Tropical Africa, 47 
species being recorded from the former and 32 from the latter; 
but this is very probably not the real state of the case, as the 
smaller butterflies are quite unknown from the greater part of the 
huge tropical area. Of the known South- African Lyccenm, 27 appear 
to be peculiar to the sub-region ; 19 of the remaining 20 are 
recorded from South-Tropical Africa ; and one (Messajpus, Godt.) 
from North (but not South) Tropical Africa. Of the 19 just men- 
tioned, 14 extend through both African tropics, and another (Gaika, 
Trim.) inhabits both South-Tropical Africa and Continental India and 
Ceylon ; two (Telicanus, Lang, and TtocJiUms, Frey.) range into North 
Africa, Southern Europe, and the south-western extremity of Asia ; 
Lysimon, Hiibn., to the latter wide distribution adds India and Java ; 
and Bcetica, Linn., the most dominant species in the genus, nearly all 
