SOME AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES 627 



covered with exceedingly rich velvety plumage of deep metallic 

 blue. R. bixol is rather smaller, but even brighter in colour, 

 and R. forestan is a very distinctive species in brown, orange, 

 and white. 



Reviewing the whole series, it becomes strikingly manifest 

 that the circumstances of Africa and its almost complete 

 detachment from the Palaearctic and Indo-Malayan region 

 have tended to isolate the butterfly fauna. I have before me 

 a list of over seven hundred African butterflies, in looking 

 through which I find only six species which have ever been 

 taken in Europe. They are Limnas chrysippus, Lanipides 

 basiicus, Tarucus telicanus, Zizera lysimon, Gegenes nostradamus , 

 and Pyrameis cardui, the remarkable butterfly which is, I be- 

 lieve, found all over the world except in South America, while, 

 with the exception of the Australasian forms, which are some- 

 what distinct, it appears to be unaltered by any environment. 



