942 
THECLINI. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
oroetes. 
amaryllis. 
hewitsoni. 
meridiona- 
lis. 
iphis. 
doddi. 
0. oroetes Heiv. (161 f as oraetes). Whilst the $ is to be recognized directly from the figure, the 
d 1 is characterized by an extremely bright sky-blue lustre with a delicate lilac reflection and a very fine black 
marginal line which is slightly thicker than in O. hewitsoni (161 f), the apex of the being hardly broader black- 
margined than in our figure of heivitsoni. The under surface of the <$ exhibits the same scheme of markings 
as in the figured $. North Australia: Derby (Western Australia) and Queensland. 
0. amaryllis Hew. (162 a). The very lustrous light blue forewing of the $ is characterized by the 
black distal margin being mo.vp than 3 cm broad, which, however, is absent in the hindwing. The forewing 
beneath is similarly variegated as in the $ which has above a very broad, proximally irregularly defined black 
marginal part. Beneath the band-marking is rather confused, as if the bands in the disc of the hindwing would 
roll up into a ball. The typical form flies round the frontier of Queensland and New South Wales, near Brisbane, 
and on the Richmond River. — hewitsoni Waterh. (161 f) deviates above very much from the type, the being 
quite brilliantly sky-blue, without a black margin of the forewing (with a but very fine marginal line), but 
the $, the marginal band of which is in the type as much as 5 cm broad, has here the black colour only 
1 mm broad in the hindwing and 3 mm at most in the forewing. North Queensland. — meridionalis 
B.-Bak ., the type of which is before me from West Australia, has the most beautiful brightest and most brilliant 
blue of all the forms of Ogyris; the black marginal line is extremely fine, the fringes with white tips; in the 
$ the black marginal band is almost as broad, about twice as broad, as in hewitsoni. Under surface similar 
to that of the other forms, in the $ with red in the cell. This form is doubtful, since the specimens from the 
different districts seem to differ from one another; some have frequently been treated as ,,oroetes“ ; the form 
is mentioned from Western and Central Australia as well as from Queensland (Emerald) and Victoria (Dimboola). 
Egg rosy grey, larva in its early stage greenish, later on dark grey, on Loranthus linophyllus. The imago 
seems to be rather common at its habitats. 
0. iphis Wat. & Ly. is somewhat larger than the preceding species, of almost the same bright blue, 
though distinguished by the black margin of the forewing being about 1 mm, in the apical part, however, more 
than 3 mm broad. The $ exhibits in the forewing a broad black margin enclosing near the apex a rather large 
orange spot directly at the costa. The under surface of the $ does not show any orange spots in the cell of 
the forewing, but behind its lower angle, between the radials and the upper median branch. Kuranda in Queens¬ 
land. — In the form doddi Wat. & Ly. the apex of the $ forewing is not broadly margined with black, and the 
costal orange spot of the $ is extended into a longitudinal patch. Besides the $ forewing beneath is intensely 
tinged with yolk-colour from the lower cell-wall almost to the margin. Northern Territory. 
Group of Theclini. 
Referring to what has been said on p. 930 with respect to the classification, we begin here with the 
last Lycaenid division. Excepting but very few genera (such as Deramas, Poritia) nearly all the Theclini are 
tailed; some have several tails, in which cases the appendages of the hindwings may frequently be considerably 
long, as in Cheritra, Ticherra etc. Otherwise the shape of the wings, in spite of the immense number and varia¬ 
bility of the genera of this division, is uncommonly homogeneous. The forewing is invariably very broad, with 
a greatly bent costa, an entirely straight, rarely feebly convex, long distal margin, and quite straight hind- 
margin. Also in the marking the upper surface of the wings in most of the genera is arranged according to 
the same scheme and the colouring dark brown with or without a cover of blue scales, with a mostly 
reddish-yellow brilliant spot in the disc of the forewing. Like in the Lycaenini, also in the members of this 
group the chief marks of distinction are to be found on the under surface of the wings, since the upper surface 
itself is in most cases entirely failing (e. g. in Arhopala). This behaviour will be understood when we consider 
that the Lycaenidae represent the phylogenetically youngest sprout of the Rhopalocera, which fact also explains 
the great uncertainty encountered in fixing both the genera and species. In the American Theclini this uncer¬ 
tainty is so very confusing that all the attempts of dividing the almost 1000 forms of American Theda into 
a great number of surveyable genera, have been given up. They must take recourse there to erecting so-called 
survey-groups, and also in the Indo-Australian fauna there are numerous genera which strictly speaking are 
hardly anything else but such a makeshift. It is quite impossible to say, whether e. g. all the genera of the 
Arhopala- group (( Surendra , Amblypodia, Mahathala, Thaduka etc.) are better combined in one single gigantic 
genus or split into a great number of genera or subgenera, as Moore and others have suggested, who desired to 
retain and facilitate the survey of so stupendous a material. The lustre of the metallic colours, the heliophily, 
the delight in blossoms and honey of the Lycaenidae, the food of the larvae (mostly high-growing blossoming 
plants), the shape and habits of the larvae, their symbiosis with Hymenoptera, which has even produced certain 
peculiar organs, all this proves the Lycaenid branch to be quite a recent lepidopteral branch in which the 
cruder anatomical divergencies could not yet take such a firm root as in old lepidopteral families having passed 
through a long period of generations. 
