Athysanota ornata ornata

Athysanota ornata ornata Mabille
Lycaena ornata Mabille, 1890a: 24; pi. 2, fig. 6. Oboronia ornata: Karsch, 1893: 229. A thysano ta orna ta: Stempffer, 1952a: 189; 1954c: 353. Stempffer and Bennett, 1956: 513.
= Liptena pseudosoyauxi Ehrmann, 1894: 77. Holland, 1927: 336.
The species ranges eastward from Sierra Leone and Guinea to Uganda and south to Gabon. Nominate ornata appears to be confined to Upper Guinea and is characterized by the feeble development of the terminal and subterminal fuscous markings below Mr of the hindwing. L. pseudosoyauxi is an outright synonym of it and not, as Holland (1927) stated, a synonym of vestalis Aurivillius (1895: 219). The latter, usually considered a "form", is a valid subspecies to which belongs all our material from southern Cameroon, Gabon, eastern Congo (Kivu) and Uganda. In the latter subspecies the terminal and subterminal markings of the hindwing above are more developed. Nomenclatorially, the name Aurivillius proposed is both available and creditable to him, for he proposed it as a "var.", a term which he used noncommittally for both sympatnc dimorphs (compare Epitola dispar var. cordelia Kirby on page 204 and Hypolycaena lebona var. coerulea on page 210 in the same work) and subspecies (compare Liptena ilma var. simplex on page 201). In the present instance, since he records one Cameroon specimen of "var. vestalis" and no typical specimens, we may assume that he meant the name to apply subspecifically.
Liberia: Bigtown (Naysmith ?) (Ehrmann, 1894: type in Carnegie Museum); Kpain, I, VIII, IX, XII; Kitoma, VIII; Jackson's Farm, VIII (Stempffer and Bennett, 1956); no further data, 1 $ (Good) ; Harbel, 3 $ , I, 1 $ , II, 2 8 , 1 9 , V, 1 $ , IX, 1 S , X,
1 9 , XI, 1 S , XII; Fish Lake, 1 2 , XII; Bomi Hills, 1 $ , IV; Kpain,
2 $ , V; trail near Fisabu, 1 S , XII; Zorzor, 1 $ , XI (Fox).