230 SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 



edge, rather before middle, from costa to inner margin,— a submarginal 

 row of large sub-lunulate spots (eight in fore-wing, seven in hind- 

 wing), and a hind-uiargiual row of seven lunules (larger in hind-wing) 

 marking excavations between nervules. Fore-iviwj : in cell, near ex- 

 tremity, an oblique elongate marking, formed of two confluent spots, — 

 and also four thin longitudinal streaks of pale sulphur-yellow scales 

 from base (the lower three branching from a common origin) nearly to 

 extrenuty ; o}i disc, especially about median nervules and submedian 

 nervure, a clothing of short, cotton-like hair. Hind-iving : two superiorly 

 blue-edged and blue-scaled ocellate spots, placed quite as in Demolcus 

 but more elongate, — that on costa not reddish itself, but the first lunule 

 of submarginal row bounding it externally, like that on inner margin, 

 dull-red ; between the two spots more or less indistinct indications of 

 similar spots, of which, however, only one (that next to inner-mar- 

 ginal spot) is distinctly blue-scaled ; some reddish-yellow scaling along 

 median nervules; tail long, spatulate, marked on each side near its 

 extremity with an elongate, pale-yellow inwardly-convex spot. Under 

 SIDE. — Similar, ixilcr, all the markings with more or less diffused edges ; 

 all nervures more or less completely edged with pale-yellowish on both 

 sides, cspccialb/ lower edge of costal nervure of hind-iving. Fore-iving : 

 a longitudinal streak between median and submedian nervures ; streaks 

 in cell better defined. Hind-iving : three streaks in cell like those of 

 fore-wing ; traces of ocelliform spots between the two ocelli much 

 better marked, all more or less blue-scaled. 



Head, thorax, legs, and abdomen coloured and marked quite as 

 in Dcmoleus, Linn., but the superior pale sulphur-yellow stripes on 

 head and pterygodes less conspicuous. The anteunaj (as Felder has 

 pointed out) are much more slender, especially as regards the clul), 

 which is scarcely recurved ; but the agreement in other structural 

 points (as well as in pattern and colouring) is close in the two species. 



^ Like $, hut dccidedhj duller, the ground more fuscoiLS than Hack, 

 and the yellow markings considerahhj deeper i7i tint. Fore-icing : band 

 broader, especially at costal commencement, the lower component spots 

 larger, almost touching (in one example confluent into a continuous 

 band) ; space between band and submarginal row of spots irrorated 

 with pale-yellow ; lowest spot of submarginal row tinged with dull-red. 

 Rind-wing : sixth as well as seventh lunule of submarginal row dull- 

 red, except at its extremities. Under side as in ^. 



This is the Southern representative of Papilio Mencsthcus, Drury, 

 but is a much larger form, no example of either sex of the West- 

 African butterfly that I have measured expanding more than 5 iV 

 inches across the wings.^ Apart from size, Ophidiccphalus is best 



1 The form found in Madagascar {P. Lormieri, Distant) is nearer to the West-African 

 type, having the spots of the fore-wing band all small and separate, the markings generally 

 of small size, and the disc of hind-wings beyond middle scarcely irrorated. The band of the 

 fore-wings is, however, straighter, as in Ophkliccphalus, not incurved costally, as in Mcnesthcus. 



