( 188 ) 

 It IT. Papilio nireus pseudonireus. 



Papilio pnemlrmiri us Felder, Beise Novara, Lep. p. 94 (18C5) (Bogos, Abyssinia). 



Papiliii nirrus var. A., Oberthur, .Im«. Mns. Cir. Gevnra xv. p. 147. n. .3. (1S79) (Shoa, July). 



Papilio ddtmUmiii Sharpe, Pior. Zniil. Snc. Loud. p. 5.S7. n. 85 (181>t>) (Darro Mts., Somaliland) : 



AuriT., I.e. p. 475. n. 37 (1899). 

 Papiliii iiireiiK var. (ah.?) j)seutlo>iire>is, Aurivillius, I.e. p. 476. sub n. 38 (1899) (partim). 

 Papilio nireiiK, var. ahjssinira, nov. spec. ! Cannaviello, J/wc. Enl. x. p. "2 (1902) (Eritrea). 

 Papilio nirenx, Pagenstecher, l.r. p. I'.i]. n. 4 (1903) (synonymy, literature, and localities excluded ; 



ManeR., 26. iii.Ol). 



7 (?c? from : Gillet Mts., Somaliland, 1000—2200 m., 20. vi., 1. vii. lOiiO, 

 Waleuso, Gillet Mts., 2000 m., 8. vii. 1000 ; Habela to Alata, Sidamo, 12. xii. 1900. 



Butler identified as p.^on/onrrcus quite a different insect (Proc. Zool. Soc 1S0.5. 

 p. 03:5) and thus misled Miss Sharpe to redescribe the present Papilio as a new 

 species. 



The specimen from the Mane River mentioned by Pagenstecher as aberration 

 belongs to pseiidonii-eiis. Pagenstecher in 1003 follows Oberthur, who in 1879 

 called pseudoni reus an aberration of /tireu.s. However, the Abyssinian specimens 

 identified by Oberthiir as true /lirei/.s are the same as what Pagenstecher gives as 

 bromiiis in his list of the butterflies caught during Baron Erlanger's expedition, and 

 are neither Linne's nireus nor Donbleday's bromius (nor (iodman's hrontes), but 

 belong to a conspicuously different form of Papilio, not found outside Abyssinia and 

 Somaliland (see below, Prtpilio nethiops). 



P. nir. p.^eiidonireiis differs from the otlier forms of nireus in the bine baud of 

 the forewing being more or less reduced. Tlie band is sometimes not narrower than 

 it is in exceptionally narrow-banded West and East African specimens of P. nir. 

 n/ret/.'i and P. nir. hjaeus, but the blue sjiots in the cell of the forewing situated 

 respectively at the upper and near the lower angle of the cell are always smaller in 

 pseudonireus than in lyaeus and nireus. In none of the seven S S are the spots 

 situated between the costal margin and R' of the forewing completely lost, though 

 in one of the eNamjdes they are represented only by a few blue scales. Among a 

 series of specimens from Salomoua, Eritrea, collected by Sehrader iu November and 

 December 1897, there are individuals with very strongly reduced median band 

 to the forewing, one of the specimens having no other remnant of the baud than 

 three tiny dots between M- and the hinder margin. Every specimen has at least 

 some bine submarginal dots on the uppersidc of the forewing, these dots being 

 either contiguous with the white marginal spots, or standing separate ; they are 

 in pairs, and are in some of Schrader's Salomona specimens very conspicuous, 

 assuming occasionally a creamy colour. The greyish cloudy scaling so often found 

 in South African specimens oi nireus hjaeus on the under surface near the apex of 

 the forewing and proximally of the middle of the hindwing is indicated in Neumann's 

 Sidamo individual, and quite distinct in some of Schrader's Salomona examples. 



There are apj)arently no constant diff'erences in the sexual armature of the 

 three subspecies of P. nireus. The clasjier is triangular. The harpe consists of a 

 lougitndiual and a vertical process. The longitudinal one is an elongate flattened 

 piece of chitin, which lies flat on the clasper, reaching to the end of the latter. It 

 is dentate at the apex. The vertical process is a proximal dilatation of the upper 

 edge of the longitudinal one. Its upper edge is either truncate or sinuate, and more 

 or less densely dentate, seldom simj)le.. The distal angle of this ridge-like i}rocess 

 is often produced distad. In pseudonireus the longitudinal process is a little more 



