Zoological Illustrations Series II/Plate 132



As considerable misconception appears to exist regarding the type of the tenuirostral or vermiform family of the Diurnal Lepidoptera, we shall endeavour to illustrate this subject. Our concluding number is accordingly devoted to the genus Polyommatus of Latrielle, and its subordinate types or sub-genera. These compose, what we have elsewhere defined, a natural and perfect group; (North. Zool. 2, 288) inasmuch as it has been tested by the analogies, and conformed by the representations, which it bears to innumerable others, both in the Annulose and vertebrated circles. According to this analysis, both Lycæna and Polyommatus, strictly so termed, instead of being types either of families or sub-families, are of one and the same genus: which genus, moreover, is but the portion of the aberrant group of the Theclinæ. The typical forms of the genus Erycina, exclusively confined to Tropical America, constitute, in fact, the pre-eminent perfection of the family in question.

As Lycæna represents the Nymphalidæ, or sub-typical family of the Diurnal Butterflys, so is it the sub-typical form of the genus Polyommatus. Its geographic range is wide, being extended to the temperate latitudes of both hemispheres. The largest British species is that now figured, from the identical specimens mentioned by Lewin.