940 
OGYRI8. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
below; otherwise the marking strongly recalls hypargyros. $ above brown, without the violet reflection. India: 
MhoWj Malda, A common small form of the dry season, being larger though rarer in the rainy season. 
35. Genus: Ogyris Dbl. u. Hew. 
This genus containing about 20 forms exhibits in the colouring of the A A the most magnificent blending 
we know amongst lepidoptera, surpassing even that of most of the Morpho and the blue lustre of all the Arhopala. 
When flying about in the sunshine, the AS sparkle like precious stones, and their blue radiance is the most 
magnificent when they are resting on the shrubs of Leptospermum and Melaleuca, with their wings half opened 
and generally their heads down. Most of the species are reported to fly very high above the ground and to 
come seldom down, on the Murchison River in West Australia, however, a species flies on plains which are 
almost only covered with shrubs. The genus is purely Australian; only 3 species extending to New Guinea, 
but on the continent the Ogyris seem to be scarcely absent in any large district. It has also been observed 
that the genus has of late been colonizing new districts. 
Although the Ogyris belong to this fauna which is distinguished by its old forms, yet they are undoubtedly 
one of the very youngest lepidoptera! groups. The species, the habits of which we know, feed as larvae on 
Loranthus, a mistle-like parasite. Also the larva itself lives in symbiosis, as many Lycaenidae do, and different 
species of ants, such as Camponotus and Aecophylla, have been ascertained watching over them. The small 
larvae, having left the trunk of the Loranthus-bush, are directly looked for by their guard of ants and speedily 
brought back again. The small larvae feed at night, whilst in daytime they keep in hiding in the chinks of 
the bark or at the foot of the trunks. The pupa is in the usual Lycaenid way held at the cremaster and by 
a sling of thread round the middle. The imago is mostly seen playing round the crowns of the Eucalyptus trees 
in the height of summer. 
By their shape and colouring the Ogyris strongly recall the Arhopala, particularly the under surface 
shows their general macular bands and the transverse streaks in the cell of the forewing. The body is robust, 
the antennae gradually thickened, the hindwing at least in the A<S mostly strongly dentate and at the anal 
angle frequently extended into a broad, sometimes lobular tail. The fore wing is broad with a pointed apex 
and in the A sometimes somewhat concave distal margin; the lower median branch starts somewhat behind 
the centre of the cell. — Bethune-Baker whose arrangement we follow here, has dealt with the genus in a 
monography. 
idmo. 0. idmo Hew. (A — orontas Hew.) (161 g). The A is above violettish-brown, almost like otanes-A 
(161 g). but the under surface shows brighter bands, particularly the dark postmedian band is broader, the 
distal part of the cell is more intensely intermixed with blue; $ with a white, above oval, beneath band-shaped 
preapical spot of the forewing. West Australia. 
u-atcrhou- 0- waterhouseri B.-Bak. is very similar and seems to represent the species in Victoria. Distinguished 
seri. from typical idmo chiefly by the shape of the wings. In the forewing the costa is more bent and the distal 
margin in the centre somewhat produced, whilst in idmo-A it is almost straight; beneath the chain-band extends 
differently from that in idmo , disappearing in the darker coloured disc of the forewing. 
otanes. 0. otanes Fldr. (161 g) is very similar to the preceding, somewhat smaller, the under surface more 
monotonous, the blue markings in the cell of the forewing are very fine, in the distal part of the cell a somewhat 
pierced black spot with blue contours. The chain-stripe of the fore wing is composed of 5 spots with adjacent 
traces of a sixth in the submedian area. The $ exhibits behind the cell-end of the forewing instead of the white 
halmaturea. oval of idmo merely a small yellowish, sometimes pierced patch. South Australia. —- halmaturea Tepp. is 
said to represent the species in the Kangaroo Island; it has rounder margins of the wings, an obtuser apex of 
the forewing, and the distal margin of the hindwing is broader brown. According to Waterhouse and L yell, 
however, the form is not to be separated from otanes. The imagines fly briskly round the bushes of Melaleuca 
and, according to Tepper, they are rather timid. 
meeki. 0. meeki Rothsch. (161 g) is beside the following the largest species of the genus. Hindwing at the 
upper median branch with a broad and long tail. Hindwings beneath more with scattered spots than with 
bands. A above uni-coloured dark violettish-brown; $ not yet known, presumably with 3 tails on the hindwing. 
New Guinea (Milne Bay). 
faciepida. 0. faciepicta Strd. (161 g) is very near to meeki , likewise large, the under surface of a more violet 
tint, the small transverse bands of the cell of the forewing narrower and shorter, the spots in the centre of the 
hindwings more united to chains as in zozine. German New Guinea. 
zozine. 0. zozine is a very variable species. The $ does not only look different from the S> as the other 
Ogyris do, but it is dimorphous and occurs in blue and violet colouring. This blue colouring also varies inasmuch 
as southern specimens exhibit bright green lustre, whereas northern ones are of a beautiful sky-blue. The 
preapical spot of the $ may likewise vary in size; it increases in extent the more the habitat is situate to the 
