88 ' SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. i 
I 
Has a very short tufted tail on first median nervule of liind-wing, \ 
not observable in worn specimens. ' 
This very distinct and handsome species is well distinguished by 
its singularly chequered under side, and, as regards the upper side, in 
the male by the brightness of the uniform blue field, and in the $ by 
the discal reproduction in part of the chequered pattern of the under 
side, chiefly in the fore-wings. The cilia in both sexes are unusually 
broad and conspicuous, pure-white, strongly and evenly interrupted 
with black. The female is not at all unlike (except for the strong , 
blue suffiision on the upper side) Pyrgus in colouring and pattern, and j 
Linnaeus (in the Museum Ludovicce, &c.), compares it to the European 
F. Mahoe. 
TJiespis is tolerably numerous in many parts of the Cape Colony, especially 
in the South- Western Districts and about Cape Town, but is usually found 
singly or in pairs. It frequents open ground generally, hovering about low 
shrubs and plants, and constantly settling ; its flight is short and weak, so j 
that it is very easily captured. I have met with it from the beginning of 
August until the end of April. For so small a butterfly it is unusually 
conspicuous on the wing. Boisduval {Voy. de Deleg. VAfr. Aust., p. 588) 
mentions it as occurring at Port Natal, but I have not seen any examples || 
from that neighbourhood. Colonel Bowker did not send this species from 
either Kaffraria proper or Basutoland, nor have I received any examples from 
the northern parts of the Cape Colony or from farther in the interior. 
Localities of Lycccna Thespis. 
I. South Africa. 
B. Cape Colony. 
a. Western Districts. — Cape Town. Stellenbosch. Triangles 
Station, Worcester District {L. Peringuey). Plettenberg Bay. 
h. Eastern Districts. — Port Elizabeth (TF. S. M. D' Urban and 
J. L. Fry). Grahamstown. Top of Gaika's Kop, Amatola 
Mountains (/. H. Bowker). 
E. Natal. 
a. Coast Districts. — ''Bay of Port Natal." — Boisduval. 
165. (47.) Lycsena Bowkeri, Trimen. 
^ ^ Lycoena Bowkeri^ Trim., Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond,, 1883, p. 351. 
Fxp. a!., I in. lin. 
$ Silky lilacine-blue ; each wing with a rather large blackish lunular 
mark closing discoidal cell, and a moderately-wide blackish macular 
hind-marginal border ; cilia wide, black, conspicuously interrupted with 
white between nervules. Hind-iving : the spots composing hind-mar- 
ginal border more separated than in fore-wing (especially near anal 
angle), and immediately preceded by contiguous thin whitish lunules. 
Under side. — Yellowish- white ; each wing with a lunular mark closing 
discoidal cell, an irregular interrupted discal row of spots, and a sub- 
marginal row of smaller subquadrate spots, — all pale ochreous-brown, : 
more or less distinctly finely edged internally and externally with 
