626 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



A striking group somewhat allied to the familiar Gonopteryx 

 rhantni of British butterflies is that of Catopsilia, remarkable 

 for the possession by the males of a brush of silky hair at the 

 base of the forewings and for the strongly arched costal margin. 

 C. florella is an extremely common species, ranging almost all 

 over the Continent right into Upper Egypt. 



Other characteristic genera are Leptosia, in which the wings 

 are peculiarly broad, rounded, and delicate, and Terias, mostly 

 small species closely alike and all more or less intensely yellow 

 or orange, with deep black margins. 



V 



That most generally admired family of butterflies, the "i 

 Papilionidce, or Swallow-tails, very scarce in the Palaearctic 

 region, and in Britain represented by only one species, is ex- 

 tremely rich in African species, many of which are excelled in 

 beauty and size only by the enormous Ornithoptera of the 

 Malay region. 



Although all the species are readily recognised as members 

 of the family, the African forms may be divided into three 

 groups. The first contains the boldly tailed species, of which 

 the P. merope, already mentioned for its remarkable mimicry 

 and P. policenes may be considered typical. The latter is a 

 very richly coloured West African species banded in metallic 

 green and black. 



The next group, while retaining the characteristic shape 

 and marking of the tailed species, has lost those appendages, 

 which are replaced by dentated or crenated hindwings. In 

 this group the commonest African Papilio may be placed. It 

 is Papilio {Orpheides) demoleus, abundant throughout the 

 Continent, and very handsomely decorated in a pattern of 

 black and yellow with rich purplish eye-spots above and below. 

 Specimens from all parts of the Continent show remarkable 

 uniformity, except in size, those from the south being markedly 

 larger than those taken on the West Coast. 



In the third group the wings are not tailed or dentated and 

 are much longer and narrower than in the typical species. In 

 this group are some, such as P. cynorta and P. similis, which 

 mimic certain species of Danaince and Acrceince. 



In the HesperidcB some very striking forms are met with 

 fairly commonly, especially on the West Coast. Skippers of 

 the normal European genera are found throughout Africa, one 

 or two Mediterranean species passing up the Nile and being 

 found unaltered and fairly freely in the Sudan. In the genus 

 Rhopalocampta, however, some very fine skippers are included. 

 R. iphis, for example, is almost three inches across and is 



