Notes on Australian butterflies in the Australian Museum. No.2
Abstract
[This work has no abstract, it begins as follows]Candalides Hübner, 1819. This genus was first mentioned in the Verzeichniss, 1819, when Hübner used it for two very dissimilar species. Of these, Scudder (1875) selected as the genotype C. xanthospilos Hübn.
The absimilis group of Candalides.
The first mention of any species of this group was by Felder 1862, when he described Holochila absimilis from Ash Island, Hunter River, N. S. Wales, received from A. W. Scott. Felder (1865) gave good figures of both sexes. I saw the holotype male at Tring Museum and there is no doubt that it is the species with a uniform blue upperside without any appearance of sex scales on the forewing when viewed either directly or obliquely. I have for long been of the opinion that I have had in the collection at least two species under the name absimilis. When Dr. C. P. Ledward found at Burleigh Heads, South Queensland, two distinct types of larvae, I was forced to make an investigation which gave rather surprising results, shown below.
The females of all the species will be very difficult to separate, but, as far as I am able, I give characters from specimens in the Museum collection which will help to distinguish them. I also include the two somewhat similar species described by Semper, where he used the genus Holochila. I have seen the types of all the species and their synonyms.
