12 SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 



specimen of T. Brigitta, (Cram.). Tlie Cingalese larva of Eccabe is 

 depicted as pale yellowish-green with a dark-brown head, and the pupa 

 as dark purplish-brown. The larv£e of this genus are stated by Double- 

 day {Gen. D. Lep., i. p. 78) and Thwaites {Lep. Ceylon, i. p. 119) to 

 feed on Leguminosm. 



Tcrias is a very extensive genus of closely-allied forms, occurring 

 throughout the tropical and sub-tropical zones of both hemisjDheres, and 

 in America extending as far northward as Virginia and Pennsylvania in 

 the United States. It finds, however, by far its largest development in 

 America (South and Central), whence about half the recorded species 

 have been received ; and in the second place comes the Indian region, 

 yielding some thirty species. The Australian and African regions seem 

 about equally poor in comparison, some twelve forms being known to 

 inhabit each of them. I recognise seven forms as natives of South 

 Africa, but am very doubtful as to the actual limits which can be 

 defined as separating them in the " sjoecies " sense. 



The difficulty of dealing satisfactorily with the numerous forms of 

 Tcrias is admitted by all lepidopterists, and has been the subject of 

 comment by E. Doubleday (op. cit.), Bates' {Journ. of Eat., 1861, p. 

 245), Butler {loc. cit., and Ann. and Ifag. Nat. Hist., 1 886, p. 21 2), and 

 Distant {op. cit.). Bates has pointed out the extreme similarity of 

 certain forms inhabiting such widely separated countries as St. Domingo 

 (West Indies) and the Malayan Archipelago ; and as regards variation 

 in one and the same locality, Butler {Trans. Ent. Sac. Loncl., 1880, p. 

 197, pi. vi.) has described and figured a series of seventeen (selected 

 from no less than i 54) examples taken at Nikko in Japan, exhibiting 

 every gradation, "from the most heavily-bordered of the Japanese 

 representative of T. Hccabe to the palest T. Mandarina, in which the 

 border has practically disappeared." In connection wdth this remark- 

 able case, it is most interesting to note that the late Mr. H. Fryer has 

 recorded {op. cit., 1882, p. 488) his having bred in Japan from eggs 

 laid by Mandarina all the broader-bordered variations (11) figured by 

 Butler, and also his having personally observed that 3Iandarinct and 

 the narrows-bordered variations that approach it are merely the autumnal 

 brood of the same butterfly. Butler inclined to attribute this exces- 

 sive variation to the crossing of various races of Tcrias,^ but Mr. 

 Fryer's experience certainly seems to show that it is a case of seasonal 

 dimorphism in a transitional condition. 



The butterflies of this genus are all below the medium size, and 

 some of them very small ; their normal colouring and pattern are very 

 simple, consisting of some tint of yellow or orange (a few species are 

 white), with a black border that is sometimes confined to the fore-wings. 

 This black border altogether disappears in some forms, while in many 

 it is very broad in the fore-wings. Several species, both in the Old 



^ A case of a i T. Zoi' having been cajitured in copula with a 9 T. Br'ujitta, is noted 

 below, p. 1 6. 



