I'APILIONIN.E. 231 



recognised by (ist) the more decided yellow, inclining to sulphureous, 

 of the markings; (2d) the greater size of all the markings, hut espc- 

 cially the ividth of the transverse land of fore-wings near costa and the 

 contiyuitij and oidicardly-truncate form of its component spots ; (3d) the 

 more conspicuous ocelli of the hind-wings and irroration of the disc 

 between those markings ; (4th) the much longer and hasally mneh 

 broader tails. In the $, the discal silky clothing is barely seen on 

 the third median nervule of the fore-wings; and the disco-cellular 

 oblique marking of the same wings in both sexes is not separated into 

 two distinct spots. The dentation of the stripe of the hind-wings 

 which borders the costal ocellus inferiorly is much more prolonged and 

 acuminate. 



Three male examples, which were taken by Mr, T. Ayres in the 

 Lydenburg District of the Transvaal, are in some respects intermediate 

 between the Southern and Tropical Western forms, though nearer to 

 the former. In size, colouring, and development of hind-wing ocelli, 

 and tails, they are quite like Ophidicephalus ; but in the fore-wings 

 the transverse band is as narrow as in Menesthcus (except at its costal 

 commencement, where it is somewhat broader), and its component 

 spots are all separated from each other except the first three, though 

 they preserve the outwardly truncate form characteristic of Ophi- 

 dicephalus. In one specimen, moreover, the oblique marking of the 

 discoidal cell in the fore-wings is divided into two parts, but the upper 

 part remains much larger than the corresponding mark in Menesthcus. 



Tiiis very fine Papilio, the largest of the South-African butterflies, was 

 discovered in Ivaffraria Proper by Colonel Bowker, who forwarded specimens 

 from the Trans-Kei territory as long ago as 1862, and has subsequently met 

 with the species in the King William's Town and East London districts and 

 in iS"atal. He notes it as common in its favourite haunts, which are deep 

 wooded kloofs, where it follows a regular line of flight along the course of a 

 stream, keeping usually about five or six feet from the ground. One of the 

 localities where the species occurs in abundance is the Perie Bush near King 

 William's Town, where Mr. Mansel Weale took it in ]\Iarch 1873. Colonel 

 Bowker notes that it first makes its appearance at the end of September or 

 beginning of October. Both lie and Mr. A. D. Millar inform me that near 

 D'Urban, the $ has been observed ovipositing on a species of Zanthoxylon, and 

 the latter writes that the young larvae are very similar to those of P. Demoleus. 

 In Natal Colonel Bowker has personally observed the butterfly all along the 

 coast from the Tugela to the Umkomazi, and inland at Karkloof and in woods 

 above ]\Iaritzburg. Mr. W. D. Gooch has published a graphic account {Ento- 

 mologist, 1880, pp. 228-229) of the difiiculty of capturing tliis apparently easy 

 prey on its course through the bush, the butterfly having a knack of evading 

 the sweep of the net just at the critical moment. During my visit to Natal 

 in 1867, I saw but one example, which was flying rapidly across open land on 

 the road between D'Urban and A^erulam. 



It is not recorded how far to the eastward typical Menesthcus extends in Africa, but it may 

 possibly occur side by side with Ophidicephalus, which Oberthiir records from Zangiiebar, 

 and which, ]\Ir. Butler informs me, has lately (1S87) been brought from Kilima-njaro. 



