6o SOUTH-AFRICAX BUTTERFLIES. 



$ Pinacoptery.e Sijriux, Wallungr., Wien. Ent. Monatschr., iv. p. 34, 



n. 4 (i860). 

 ^ Pieris Mesentina, Hopff., Peters' Eeise Mossamb., Ins., p. 352 (1862). 

 S 9 „ „ Trim., Rhop. Afr. Aust., i. p. 35, 11. 21 (1862). 



? Pieris Lordaca, Walk., Entomologist, 1870, p. 48. 

 Larva and Pupa {Indian), Horsf. and Moore, Cat. Lep. E. I. C. ]\Ius., i. 

 pi. xii. ff. 9, 9a (1857). 



Exp. al, Q) 2 in. 0-3 lin. ; ($) i in. 10 lin.— 2 in. 3I lin. 



^ White, with blackish borders. Fore-wing : costa narrowly edged 

 with black, and bordered with greyish above discoidal cell ; a curved 

 black transverse streak, thickest at its lower extremity, at end of cell ; 

 a black hind-marginal border, with a very irregular inner edge, nar- 

 rowing to a point at posterior angle, and containing in its upper half 

 six elongate somewhat triangular white marks ; base with a slight 

 pearly gloss. Head-wing : a hind-marginal black border, containing 

 incompletely (owing to more or less obsolescent inner edge) four large 

 subovate white spots ; base with a pearly gloss. Under side. — Similar 

 in marking ; hind-iving faintly tinged with yellowish. Fore-vytng : spots 

 in hind-marginal border larger, better defined ; a black streak between 

 costal and subcostal nervures from base to ujDper end of disco-cellular 

 terminal transverse streak. Hind-iving : all the neuration clouded 

 with blackish ; costa and a longitudinal streak between median and 

 submedian nervures tinged from base with chrome-yellow ; a yellow 

 edo-ing before middle of inner margin ; a blackish transverse stripe 

 from extremity of discoidal cell to longitudinal streak just mentioned, 

 and another from end of costal nervure to second subcostal nervule ; hind- 

 marginal border completely enclosing five spots of the ground-colour, 



$ Varying from yellowish-ivhitc to dull-yclloivish ; markings miieh 

 as in $, but all broader. Fore-wing : curved bar at extremity of cell 

 connected with base by a black costal stripe ; spots in hind-marginal 

 border small and ill-defined, or sometimes wanting. Hind-wing : a 

 linear transverse mark at extremity of cell ; beyond middle a blackish 

 subcostal marking, sometimes united to hind-marginal border; four 

 somewhat rounded spots in border, sometimes obliterated. Under 

 SIDE. — Hind-wing and apical spots of fore-wing tvhitish, more or less 

 tinged and clouded with chrome-yellow. Fore-iving : a basal sufiVision 

 of rather dull chrome-yellow, very variable in extent, sometimes almost 

 filling discoidal cell and tinging costa beyond middle. Hind-tving : 

 neuration thickly black-clouded ; spots in hind-marginal border varied 

 with yellow. 



The typical Mescntina, figured by Cramer, is the ordinary form of 

 continental India, in which the $ has the black markings generally 

 more strongly represented, and both sexes (but especially the ^) exhibit 

 a deeper yellow on the under side of the hind-wings and apex of fore- 

 wings. The latter is, however, a decidedly variable character in Indian 

 specimens (though I have not seen any quite so pale as the African 

 ^ s, in which the colouring is almost white), and appears, from the 



