LYCyENID.E. 
141 
Abdomen sliort, thick, but terminally rather acute. 
Larva. — Broad, very convex dorsally ; each segment from second 
to ninth inclusive with a dorsal hump, most prominent on fourth, eighth, 
and ninth segments. Lateral margins of body widened so as to com- 
pletely conceal head and legs from above. Food-plant, species of Ficus. 
Pupa. — Stout and broad (not unlike a contracted larva in general 
form), constricted about middle ; thorax very bluntly ridged on the 
back ; abdomen very broad and globose. Attached to leaves or bark 
horizontally, by the tail only. 
I follow Mr. W. F. Kirby in restoring the West- African Silenus, 
Fab. (= Alcides, Cram.), to its original position as the type of the 
Fabrician genus 31yrina, placing with it the closely- allied African species 
M. Jicedida, Trim., and dermaj)te7^a, Wallengr. ; but I think it very 
questiouable whether these butterflies can be identified generically with 
the Indian species (Atymnus^ Cram., and allies) typical of Horsfield's 
genus Loxiira. The latter are not only of much slenderer structure 
throughout, but have the palpi much thinner and longer, and present 
a very different neuration in part of the fore-wings, the radial nervules 
not originating together, but far apart, so that while the upper disco- 
cellular nervule is very short, the middle one (separating the radials) is 
of a good length, indeed as long as the lower one. 
The two species found in South Africa are very strongly-made 
little butterflies, with robust bodies and thick legs and wings, M. flee- 
dida more so than M. dermapUra. The former is readily distinguished 
by its larger size and chestnut-red or ferruginous apical and hind- 
marginal space in the fore-wings ; it is also much more widely dis- 
tributed over South Africa, M. dermaptera being only hitherto known 
from the coast of Natal and Zululand. Though capable of rapid flight 
for short distances, these Myrince do not seem to use their wings miuch, 
sitting very closely to their favourite perches among the wild and culti- 
vated fig-trees, but occasionally visiting other plants. I have found M, 
ficedula sucking the fruit of the cultivated fig, and also the moisture 
exuding from wounds on a large kind of Acacia. 
19L (1.) Myrina ficedula, Trimen. 
$ Loxura Alcides, Boisd., Sp. Gen. Lap., i. pi. 22, f. 3 (1836). 
„ „ Wallengr., K. Sv. Yet.-Akad. HandL, 1857,— Lep. 
Khop. Caffr., p. 34. 
$ „ Trim., [part], Bhop. Afr. Aust,, ii. p. 219, n. 125 
(1866). 
^ $ Myrina ficedula, Trim., Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1879, p. 324. 
Exp. al, ($) I in. 2-|-7 lin. ; ($) I in. 6-7 J lin. 
Black, with very large hasi-discal space of intense metallic ultra- 
marine-Uue in hoth luings ; fore-wing with an apical hind-marginal 
ferruginous pa^cA. Fore-ioing : blue occupies inner margin and dis- 
