150 SOUTH- AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 



ino- only the thin part between first subcostal and radial nervules, and 

 occasionally complete but macular. 



AberratiOxV. — $ Apical imtcU not orange, hut sericeous jnnlcish- 

 grey, with a thin line of dull-orange along its inner edge, and also on 

 costa and third subcostal ncrvule ; inner black spot of apical patch very 

 small ; no longitudinal blackish stripes ; under-side tint creamy, rather 

 densely irrorated with dark-grey. 



Jlal. — Estcourt, Natal (/. M. Hutchinson). 



I think that there can be no doubt, on carefully comparing the 

 descriptions given by Boisduval, of the species-identity of his Antigone 

 and Delphine, the former being a West- African ^, with the longitudinal 

 dark stripes very faintly marked and the under side of the hind-wings 

 whitish, and the latter the more prevalent South-African ^ and $, with 

 reddish-creamy under side of hind-wings, — the $ without, the $ some- 

 times with, the longitudinal dark stripes. 



I have been enabled to identify the Eucharis $ of Wallengren with 

 this species by means of a coloured drawing of the type-specimen 

 kindly obtained for me by Mr. Chr. Aurivillius. It is a <^ in which 

 all the blackish markings of the upper side are very small and attenu- 

 ated, but there exists an extremely faint inner-marginal spot indicating 

 the termination of the longitudinal stripe of the fore-wings, while the 

 under side of the hind-wings is creamy with partial dark irroration and 

 a costal spot indicating the commencement of the discal ray. I possess 

 an almost identically marked $ from Estcourt in Natal, only wanting 

 the inner-marginal spot in the fore-wings. 



The most painstaking examination— in i88i, and renewed in 

 1 8 86 — of the types of Mr. Butler's six species above named has 

 brought me to the conclusion that they are really inseparable from 

 each other and from Antigone, Boisd., being founded on individual 

 variations prevailing in both sexes in respect alike of size, marking, 

 and colouring. As regards the $ s, there is a regular gradation from 

 Suhfurnosus, which has no trace of dark longitudinal stripes, through 

 Flaminia, Lycoris, and Friga, to Galathinus, in which those markings 

 are well developed ; and Lyceus, though larger and with fainter stripes, 

 is quite of the Galathinus character. The specimens of $ s respectively 

 assigned to the (^ s of this series cannot be clearly discriminated, vary- 

 ing too much to bo with any consistency grouped in any order corre- 

 sponding with that of the ^ s. All the specimens on which these six 

 presumed species are founded were collected by the late Mr. E. C. 

 Buxton in Swaziland. 



The specimens in which the blackish stripes are best developed 

 certainly exhibit close resemblance to Fhlcgetonia, Boisd., and it seems 

 not improbable that eventually the latter will be ascertained to be 

 conspccific with the series included under Antigone. 



I have only once met with this widely-distributed Teracolus, which appears 

 to be less numerous than Pldegetonia in the eastern tracts of South Africa, 



