Genus Lysandra Hemming

(Fig. 19)

Egg features are distinctive in this genus that is otherwise taxonomically complex. In Lysandra coridon (Poda) (Fig. 19 A, B) the egg has a chorion surface with a robust framework, in L. albicans (Gerhard) (Fig. 19 C, D) it has high and flattened cell walls and in L. bellargus (Rottemburg) (Fig. 19 E, F) the surface structure of the chorion is thinner. The three species have small and depressed annular zones with two or three series of cells that have smooth walls and surfaces in L. coridon and L. bellargus and spotted surfaces in L. albicans . The transition zone is particularly flattened in the three species, less remarkably in L. bellargus and lacks tubercles. Distinctive features are more marked in the tubercle-aeropyle area where L. coridon has triangular cells with thick cell walls which are grouped in hexagons whose angles give rise to rounded tubercles (Schurian 1975). In L. albicans the flattened cell walls lead in the intersections to thick, blunt ended tubercles. L. bellargus has small and short tubercles in the tubercle-aeropyle area and thinner walls of the cells than in the other species of the genus.