LYCAENIDAE. General Topics. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
800 
hara will only then be taken in great numbers if one fastens the nets to sticks reaching about 3 m high, 
since the butterflies mostly fly about at this altitude above the soil. Many species, however, seem in fact 
to occur in relatively few specimens. As for instance T. marsyas being widely spread in Tropical America 
is of such an extremely bright blue splendour, being besides about the largest Lycaenidae, that it seems 
impossible to overlook any specimen of this butterfly bustling about almost incessantly. Nevertheless it 
is captured in single specimens only, and although one gets sight of such single specimens nearly every day, 
it would be a matter of impossibility to collect a hundred of these butterflies, and we may, therefore, presume 
that the number of specimens in which this species is developed is very small. 
Phylogenetic ally, the Lycaenidae are probably a very young race. They almost without exceptions 
visit blossoms, being often widely distributed (Polyomm. baeticus over the whole Old World, Cyaniris argiolus 
over the whole northern hemisphere); the larvae frequently prefer the most modern plants (Mimosae, Caesal- 
pineae, Papilionaceae etc.). They have entered into symbiosis with other insects and they evidently undergo 
the struggle for their existence without difficulties and without avoiding it by hiding themselves or by too 
great timidity. Most of their larvae live freely, and some of them appear also in their habits extremely 
specialized having become entomophagans. 
Of the distinctive features being rather general in the Lycaenidae, the almost invariably and very 
distinctly curled antennae are to be mentioned. They are never too long, in the whole group very uniform, 
of somewhat less than the length of the costa, with a short, clubby knob. They are remarkably little pliant, 
but so stiff that they are flawed and broken already in the living animal, if seized unskillfully. The palpi 
exhibit a greater variability, but they are never so enormously developed as we have seen in the preceding 
family in the Libythea. The second joint is mostly set with very long hairs like a brush, generally white 
or very light blue, the third being shorter, pointed and sometimes very sparsely scaled. The eyes are very 
constant and so conspicuously shaped that mostly one glimpse at the formation of the eyes of a specimen 
suffices to recognize the Lycaenidae. As there d,re no mimetic Lycaenidae among the Indo-Australian species, 
this is of less importance here. But in Africa, as we see by a glance at t. 62, 63 and 64 of Vol. XIII. of 
the ,,Macrolepidoptera“, there occur species copying most exactly the patented Danaids, Acraea, or Pieris, 
and on being looked at superficially they make by no means the impression of Lycaenidae. It is, therefore, 
worth knowing that the design of the Lycaenid-eyes is not round like that of most of the other day-butterflies, 
but, as a rule, more or less oblong or bean-shaped; the posterior edge is sometimes sinuated, and here 
there is generally a bright silvery-white band of a brazen-coloured brilliancy with fine, fur-like hairs or smoothly 
scaled, running more or less far in front round the eye. 
The thorax may be robust and broad or also slim, but it is always brittle and easily broken on 
being pressed, so that the animal is no more able to fly after having been pressed with one’s fingers. Danaids, 
Acraea and Heliconies having not been strongly pressed immediately fly off again or recover very soon; the 
Lycaenidae, however, are apparently not able to offer resistance to such insults, though some ( Cigaritis, 
Aphnaeus) require a stronger pressure and seem to be better armoured, as they feel hard between one’s 
fingers, almost like beetles or Hymenoptera. 
The thorax-appendages are mostly not less characteristic than the heads of the Lycaenidae. All the 
6 legs are developed, but the forefeet of the have the tarsi peculiarly modified, with quite few exceptions, 
so that there are sharp hooks instead of claws. The forewings are formed rather harmoniously, mostly tri¬ 
angular and entire; the subcostal in almost all the Indian genera 4-branched. The hind wings, however, often 
exhibit long, tail-like appendages, sometimes broad and sword-like, but sometimes also as fine as a hair 
and comparable with quite thin down-feathers. Sometimes there occur 2 pair of such appendages, in addition 
to them sometimes even a third, lobular appendage to the wing, and some Indian forms are remarkable 
for appearing tailed or not tailed, according to the season. 
The abdomen of the Lycaenidae is in the mostly very slender and with fine, often silky hairs, 
or above with metallic scales. Also in the it is generally not too stout and never so heavy that the flight 
would become clumsy. The Lycaenidae are, on the contrary, almost unexceptionally skilled flyers, often 
bustling about impetuously fast and belonging to the best-flying insects known. 
The chief enemies of the butterfly are the reptiles and especially the amphibia. The lizard Calotes 
versicolor snatches away the small butterflies from leaves and blossoms, and great numbers of Lycaenidae 
resting deeper in the grass are devoured by the batrachians. They', therefore, often use to settle up on 
high meadow-flowers for their night’s rest, o'r creep into the calix as far as possible, where these enemies 
cannot get so easily. But there they often fall a prey to crab-spiders. I have, however, never seen that 
they were pursued or even attacked by birds; on the contrary, I saw crowds of the entomophagan Ixus 
and other Pycnonotus searching for insects on bushes being occupied by Lampides and Polyommatus without 
the butterflies being molested, although they almost provokingly spread out their blue wings. Near Adelaide 
