_Upper Side._ Head, thorax, and abdomen dusky brown. Anterior wings fine
mellow dark brown or snuff colour towards the tips; but near the body,
glowing with a fine dark glossy purple. Near the tip of each wing are two
small white specks, one scarcely visible; on the lower part of each wing
is a rather large oval spot, of the same snuff colour with that near the
tips. Posterior edges circularly dilated, and gradually widening from the
shoulders to the external edges. Posterior wings dark brown, but glowing
all over in some directions with a dark glossy blueish purple. Near the
abdominal corners are two black eyes on each wing, surrounded by
beautiful dazzling blue.
_Under Side._ Breast and sides yellowish sandy-coloured. Anterior wings
divided into three parts by two lines or bars; one being brown and
narrow, the other white and rather broad. The first division, next the
body, is of a russet or light hair colour, tinctured with pearl, having a
short black streak near the middle; the next, or middle division, is
light brown; the third is dark clay-coloured. A considerable number of
long hairs arising from a single point or stalk, spreading like the
leaves of a fan, and occupying the space corresponding with the oval spot
mentioned before; those on the outside bending downwards, and curling.
(See Fig. 3. This circumstance is peculiar to one sex only.) Posterior
wings next the body russet, with a single black spot near the middle of
each. Abdominal groove russet. {2}Middle of the wing with a rather broad
bar of a fine deep chocolate colour, beginning at the anterior edge and
ending at the abdominal groove; the upper side of the bar next the body
being russet. Lower part of the wing, next the external edge, of a colour
between russet and chocolate, with three small white spots near the upper
corner. The two black eyes are distinct on this side, with narrow blue
irides. The wings are a little dentated.
Drury's figure represents an individual in which the posterior wings have
no appearance of the short tail, which the species ordinarily exhibits. It
may, perhaps, originate in the figure being taken from a mutilated
specimen. The Papilio Morna of Fabricius, appears nearly allied to this
insect.
THECLA FAUNUS [female].
Plate I. fig. 4, 5.
ORDER: Lepidoptera. SECTION: Diurna. FAMILY: Lycænidæ, _Leach_.
GENUS. THECLA, _Fabr._ Polyommatus p. _Latr._ Hesperia p. _Fabr. olim._
Papilio (Pleb. ruric.) _Drury._
THECLA FAUNUS. Alis supra fuscescenti-violaceis apice atro, subtus albis
strigâ communi mediâ fulvâ; posticis tricaudatis, lineâ marginali
nigricante maculisque duabus nigro viridique mixtis. (Expans. Alar. 1
unc. 3 lin.)
SYN. [female] Papilio (Pleb. ruric.) Faunus, _Drury_, _App. vol._ 2.
_Cramer_, _pl._ 39. B. C. [male]. 96. F. G. [female]. _Fabr. Ent. Syst._
III. 1. _p._ 161. _No._ 11. (Hesperia F.) _Encycl. Méth._ ix. _p._ 618.
1. (Polyommatus F.)
[male] Hesperia R. Hesiodus, _Fabr. Ent. Syst._ III. 1. _p._ 260. 8.
_Pal. Bauv. Ins. d'Afr. et d'Amer. Lep._ _Pl._ 7. _f._ 5. 6. 7. [male].
[female].
HABITAT: Sierra Leone (_Fabr._). Gold Coast (_Drury_).
_Upper Side._ Antennæ ringed with white and black. Anterior wings greyish
brown, without markings. Posterior wings of the same greyish brown. Cilia
white. A little above the abdominal corners are four white spots, placed
close together; the two inner ones being smallest. Each of these wings is
furnished with three tails, the upper parts of which are black, the other
parts white; the middle one being almost as long as the wing, the other
two are about half that length.
_Under Side._ Palpi, head, and breast white. Legs white and brown. Wings
fine silvery white. A small, narrow, orange-coloured line begins at the
middle of the anterior edge of the fore wings: which, crossing them and
the hind ones, runs almost to the abdominal corner, where it suddenly
turns back and ends at the abdominal groove. Near this part are two small
black spots, one placed between the two outer tails, and the other on the
abdominal edge.
Fabricius gives the sexes of this insect as distinct species, under the
names cited above, stating India to be the habitat of Hesiodus (or the
male). Palisot de Bauvois has, however, satisfactorily cleared up the
error, by figuring both sexes from Africa. The male has the disc of the
wings, on the upper side, of a rich blue colour.
{3}PLATE II.
[Illustration]