260 PSEUDACRAEA EURYTUS 



length met with success, as told in a letter dated June 

 16th (and partially printed in the Proc. Ent. Soc, 1912, 

 p. cxv) : 



" I feel I can almost say, as did Charles Kingsley, 

 ' At last ! ' To-day (Sunday) being a sunny morning 

 after many wet mornings, I went butterflying. I saw 

 a few freshly emerged Pseudacraeas, and, just as I was 

 coming away, saw a beautiful obscura, whose very large 

 pale areas indicated more than a touch of the female 

 hohleyi. It was fluttering about from bush to bush, 

 and was too shy to let me get near to catch it. At last 

 it settled, and hung from the underside of a leaf, and I 

 was able to see it had a fairly distinct basal triangle 

 (indicating admixture with the form hohleyi). It remained 

 motionless a few seconds, and though that attitude is 

 exceptional for Pseudacraea (they always rest on the 

 upper side of a leaf with wings usually expanded) it never 

 struck me what was up. I tried to catch it, but it flew 

 off before I got within striking distance. It then occurred 

 to me to look at the leaf, and to my inexpressible joy 

 and excitement, there was a freshly laid egg on the middle 

 of the under surface, still moist with the secretion which 

 fastened it to the leaf. So, if this egg produces a terra 

 (and the chances are in favour of this, as terra is much 

 the commonest here), you will have the proof you so 

 ardently desire, seeing that the parent was a mixture 

 of hohleyi and ohscura ! Anyhow, now that I know and 

 have found the food plant, I may have better luck in 

 getting a captive Pseudacraea to lay. There is just time 

 for the egg, larva, and pupa to develop before the con- 

 gress at Oxford is over, so that, should the offspring be 

 terra or hohleyi I will let you know. As of course there will 

 be no time to write, I will cable just the one word, either 

 terra or hohleyi. If it is ohscura I will not cable, but 

 will, of course, write. I feel that it will be such a splendid 

 opportunity for making this result known when you 



