riERIKE. 125 



dead leaves away from the liglit, dark-brown ; on dry stem of food- 

 plant, pale-ochreous ; and on a glass tumbler, pale yellowish-green. 



Topha is distinguished from Auxo, Lucas, by its considerably smaller 

 size and somewhat acuter fore-wings ; by the comparativel}^ larger and 

 more deeply-tinted orange patch in the $, always wholly free from any 

 trace of inner dark edging, and with only an extremely faint and attenu- 

 ated brownish outer edging ; by the much reduced discal spotting of 

 the ^, which in the hind-wings disappears altogether, and by the deep 

 dull-reddish colouring of the under side in both sexes. One $ example, 

 from Weenen County, in Natal, exhibits considerable deviation from 

 the last-named character, having the under side of the hind-wings 

 yellow, with only a basal reddish stain and some very sparse brownish 

 irroration ; and another ^ from the same district exhibits in the same 

 wings an ill-defined dusky longitudinal streak traversing discoidal cell 

 from base to extremity, 



Mr. AY. S. M. D'Urban, who in i860 made known to me this interesting 

 Teracolus, was so struck Avith its abundance in and apparent restriction to the 

 neighbourhood of the Keiskamma in the then Colony of British Kaffraria, that 

 lie proposed for it the name of that river, which I accordingly adopted in my 

 liliopalocera Africce Australis, not being aware that the butterfly had already 

 been described by "Wallengren under the name Topha. It has since been 

 found to have a considerable range eastward and northward, but seems to occur 

 nowhere in such profusion as in the locality where Mr. D'Urban discovered it. 



In the paper already quoted, Mr. Mansel "Weale records the interesting fact 

 that while from January to May 1876 he for the first time met with KeisTiamma 

 ( = Topha) numerously about a bush of what proved to be their food-plant, a few 

 miles from King William's Town, and saw no examples of Evarne ( - Auxo), 

 yet in the next succeeding summer, from the end of 1876 to the end of April 

 1877, he found no 'Topha on or about the same Caclaha bush, but only Auxo, 

 which he had not before noticed in this neighbourhood. He observed the 

 $ Auxo laying her eggs in the same manner as the $ Topha ; the eggs and 

 the resulting larvae and pupae did not differ from those of Auxo, and the pupae 

 exhibited the same liability to vary in colour. 



Mr. Weale Avrote to me that he regarded these observations as proving the 

 species-identity of the two butterflies, and certainly the evidence in that direc- 

 tion is strong. But a difficulty occurs in the circumstance that the two forms 

 were not seasonal ones in the ordinary sense, but appeared in the corresponding 

 (summer) season in both years of observation ; and it is also to be noted that 

 Mr. D'Urban (who did not meet with Auxo during his stay in British Kalfraria) 

 expressly wrote that Topha was on the wing " all the year round." Mr. Weale 

 mentions, however, that the summer when Topha prevailed was a wet one, and 

 that the succeeding one, when only Auxo was seen, was luiusually drj'. Until 

 one form has been shown by direct observation to result from ova laid by the 

 other, I think it advisable, in view of the very marked differences exhibited in 

 both sexes, to keep the two apart. 



Localities of Teracolus Topha. 

 I. South Africa. 

 B. Cape Colony. 



b. Eastern Districts. — "Kingscote to Chalumua and Line Drift," 

 Keiskamma {W. S. M. D'Urban). "King William's Town."— 

 J. P. Mansel Weale. 



