SOME AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES 625 



two or more smaller eyes. Brown of varying shades is the 

 prevailing colour, though there are one or two yellow and pale 

 species. 



IV 



The Lyccenidce, commonly known as " blues," though 

 many of them are not blue at all, are extremely numerous in 

 Africa, and many genera are met which have striking features 

 as compared with those of the Palaearctic region. At the 

 same time, the generality of species in this family shows close 

 affinity with those of other areas, the whole group being, in 

 point of fact, very cosmopolitan. Thus, the familiar Tailed 

 Blue, Lampides bcelicus, is found throughout Africa, passing 

 down the Nile Valley into Europe, where it is fairly widely 

 distributed. 



Of the genus Thecla there are no true representatives in 

 Africa, but many closely allied genera. Very interesting indeed 

 are the species in which the tails, more or less incipient in 

 Thecla and other Palaearctic genera, are very strongly developed. 



Passing to that family containing so many typically English 

 butterflies, commonly called "Whites," the Pieridce, we find 

 that, although certain groups are common to both regions, the 

 species which comprise them are totally different in Africa 

 from those familiar in Europe. The common Cabbage butter- 

 flies of our gardens are replaced by multi-spotted forms often 

 with a good deal of bright orange upon them. The group of 

 typically Alpine butterflies known as Colias is also represented, 

 but in rather curious fashion. There are several species 

 distributed through the Continent, mostly somewhat smaller 

 than typical Colias, and of the Pale type allied to the Pale 

 Clouded Yellow. On the other hand, the Clouded Yellow, 

 abundant throughout the greater part of Europe, has an almost 

 identical African relative, Colias eledra, differing only in its 

 markings being slightly obscure and the whole surface suffused 

 with a peculiar purplish lustre. It seems quite likely that the 

 two species are identical, but have varied in opposite directions 

 after being cut off from intercommunication. 



The Orange tips, familiar to us by one indigenous and 

 charming species, are very characteristic of Africa, though the 

 European species is not found in the Ethiopian region. In the 

 varied collection of African species grouped under the large 

 genus Teracolus, the tip is not only orange, but in different 

 species may be red, violet, or blue, while generally this patch 

 is bounded inside as well as outwardly with a black bar. In- 

 teresting features of this group are some striking instances of 

 seasonal dimorphism, well illustrated by specimens of T. omphale 

 in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. 



