200 SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 



Tlie Pltp^t: exhibit various shades of green or brown, and many 

 diversities of form. Some of the green ones (in South Africa notably 

 those of P. Brasiilas and P. Cenea), which are suspended on or among 

 leaves, are both in form and colour unmistakably modified to resemble 

 the surrounding foliage. The chrysalis of P. Lycvns was discovered by 

 Mrs. Barber (ijide ivfra, p. 237) to have a singular faculty of assimi- 

 lation to the colour of immediately surrounding objects ; and I have 

 found that of P. Dtmohus to present the same phenomenon to a less 

 extent.^ The chrysalis of the Indian P. (lissimilis closely resembles 

 a withered twig broken off short. 



Mimicry is well illustrated in this genus. ]\Ir. Bates in 1862 

 called attention to several striking cases in South America, — two in 

 which species of Painlio mimic respectively a Lycorca and a Ilcli- 

 conius, and three in which species of Papilio are themselves mimicked 

 by a Euteiyc (Picrince), a Castnia, and a Pericopis (both the latter 

 moths). ]\Ir. Wallace in 1865 tabulated fifteen cases known to him 

 in the Indian and Malayan liegion, viz., three in which species of 

 Papilio imitate species of Danais, three in which they imitate species 

 of Eup)lcea, two in which they imitate species of Hcstia, and one in 

 which a $ form of Papilio copies a Drusilla (Sub-Family Moiyhirm). 

 He also cited six cases in which slow- flying Papiliones of the Poly- 

 doriis and Cooii groups are themselves simuhated by females of species 

 of Papilio belonging to other groups of the genus. Africa has not 

 hitherto afforded any instances of the last named very curious mimi- 

 cries, but it presents some surprisingly exact imitations, of which the 

 seven following are known to me, viz. : P. Brutus $ closely copies 

 AmaKris Niaxius ; P. Cenea $ in its three pronounced forms copies A. 

 Echcria, A. clo7ninican7is, and Danais Chrysippns ; P. Echmoides $ copies 

 A. Echeria ; P. Cynorta ^ copies Acrxa Gca ^ ; P. Bidleyanus $ and 

 % copy Acrcca Eyina $ and ^ ; P. Lconidas copies Danais Zimniace, 

 var. ; " and P. Bex copies P. formosa. These deceptive simulations 

 are too detailed and exact to admit of their protective purpose being 

 misunderstood, more especially in those cases where the $ only is 

 concerned, that sex departing in the most startling manner, alike in 

 colouring, pattern, and outline, from the facies of the ^, as well as 

 from that of its $ congeners in the same group. 



As regards their local distribution, the fifteen known South-African 

 species are all found on the South-Eastern Coast. P. Porthaon and 

 Colonna do not seem to occur south of Delagoa Bay ; Leonidas extends 

 to Zululand ; Corinneus, Morania, Antheus, Policcnes, and Constantinus 

 range to Natal ; Eupliranor has been found in Natal, Kaffraria Proper, 

 and Transvaal ; Brasidas, Ophidiccpjlialus, and Echerioides extend from 



^ Mr. G. r. Matliew (Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., iSSS, p. 176) notes a similar power of 

 assuming the colour of the objects to which they may be respectively attached in the chry- 

 salides of the Australian P. Erectheus [Jilgeus). 



^ The very closely allied P. Brasidas imperfectly but obviously mimics Amaiiris EeJieria. 



