622 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



the European collector are the Nymphalince, with which they 

 agree in the primary characters. There are only four perfect 

 legs in the imago, the front pair being aborted. The pupae are 

 also suspended by the tail. In Danaince, however, the larvse 

 are smooth, with fleshy appendages, and in the perfect insect 

 the cells of the wings are closed. In the males there are con- 

 spicuous patches of raised scales, sometimes in the form of lines 

 on the forewings, but more generally as round patches on the disc 

 of the hindwings. These scales cover the scent-producing 

 organs, which, while primarily sexual in their office, have also 

 some protective function. 



Structurally, AcrceincE are chiefly noteworthy for the thick 

 and diverging palpi, while the wings are remarkably clean, 

 rounded, and rather long in outline. Many species have 

 transparent wings, and a very unusual feature in butterflies 

 is the possession by the females of many species, of a horny 

 pouch at the end of the abdomen. The larvae have branching 

 spines, and, like those of the NymphalincB, feed gregariously. 



Limnas chrysippus is, as I said before, one of the commonest 

 of African butterflies, abounding in such distant places as the 

 Gold Coast, Natal, and the Sudan. It expands from 80-85 mm., 

 specimens from different parts of the Continent varying but 

 little in size. In the typical form, the colour is brick-red, with 

 black borders spotted with white. The tip of the forewings is 

 black, crossed by a row of connected white spots, with some 

 smaller ones near. The hindwings have, in the female, three, 

 and in the male four black spots round the cell of the hindwings, 

 the fourth being the largest and at the bottom. 



This butterfly varies a great deal in colour, the most constant 

 and striking form being that known as var. Alcippus, in which 

 the hindwings are almost entirely white. My specimens of this 

 variety are from the Gold Coast, where it appears to be the 

 predominant form, while those from Natal have the dark 

 hindwings. In the Sudan, however, all forms seem equally 

 prevalent, and specimens I have recently received from my 

 friend, Mr. B. W. Whitfeild, show an almost complete series, 

 ranging from red to white, while some dark forms of the male 

 have the large black spot surrounded by a white ring, the rest 

 of the wing being reddish. The larva is bluish grey, with 

 yellow longitudinal stripes and black transverse lines, while the 

 filaments are black and red. 



Quite a large company of butterflies and moths mimic this 

 remarkable insect. The most striking is the female of Hypo- 

 limnas misippus, which, apart from structural characters, only 

 differs by being generally slightly larger, and, instead of having 

 four black spots on the hindwings, has one only, on the costa. 

 Other very close mimics, some African, others Indian, are 



