LYC^NID^. 
51 
Whitish-grey ; witli minute, whitish-ringed blackish spots ; in both 
wings a thin, greyish, whitish-edged mark closing discoidal cell ; a 
transverse row of spots beyond middle (that of fore-wing curved, com- 
mencing with two minute spots on costa before and about middle^ and 
reaching to submedian nervure ; that of hind- wing sharply curved, 
composed of eight spots, from costa about middle to inner-margin) ; 
two dentate, submarginal, lunular, greyish, whitish-edged lines, — the 
outer one broader, interrupted, macular ; and a thin, black, bounding 
line immediately before cilia. Hind-wing : a basal black spot ; before 
middle a transverse row of four spots ; no metallic-centred spots near 
anal angle. 
$ Didl-brown. Under side. — As in $ ; spots more distinct. 
In the J the dark hind-marginal border of the fore-wing is always 
wider at the apex, but varies considerably in width as well as in tint, 
in some examples being much darker and with a well-defined inner 
edge, emitting short nervular rays, while in others it is suffused and 
without defined inner edge. The border of the hind-wing is constantly 
narrow and not well-defined inwardly, the costa being also bordered 
with brownish-grey as far as first subcostal nervule. In the $ there is 
rarely a faint basal and discal suffusion of grey on the upper side. A 
specimen which I took in Griqualand West, which is larger and paler 
generally than usual, best exhibits this feature. 
This is undoubtedly the same insect that is described and figured by 
Moore {o2X cit) as Pygmcea, of Snellen, a native of Java and Ceylon, — speci- 
mens that I examined in the British Museum only differing in the less dis- 
tinctly marked under side. Though apparently belonging to the Lysimon 
group, it is of much more slender structure thoughout, and has remarkably 
elongate wings. These characters, combined with its whiter under side 
(which has much more sharply curved discal rows of spots, but is without 
cellular or subcellular spot near base of fore-wing) readily distinguish Gaika 
from Lysimon. 
I found this little Lycoina in some abundance about D'Urban, in Natal ; 
it flew very feebly, near the ground, among grass and weeds. It seems to be 
on the wing for the greater part if not the whole of the year ; for I took it 
in June, August, February, and March in Natal, and during September in 
Griqualand West. It extends to many other parts of Natal, but seems to be 
scarcer inland. Colonel Bowker sent several examples from Zululand ; and 
northwards the species ranges beyond the Tropic into Damaraland on the 
Western Coast. Its most southern locality known to me is the coast of 
Bathurst in the Cape Colony. So small and inconspicuous a butterfly is, 
however, apt to be overlooked by collectors, and, looking to its wide geo- 
graphical range, there can be no doubt that it inhabits very many stations 
as yet unrecorded.-^ 
^ In the British Museum there is a c5 Lycwna, ticketed " Pernambuco," which is very 
closely allied to, if not identical with, L. Gaika. The only distinctions I could discover were 
its hind-marginal border of the fore- wings being broader than usual, and the lunules of the 
inner submarginal line on the under side being sagittiform instead of nearly straight. 
