234 SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 



This Fapilio is not distantly related to P. Thersamkr, Fab.,^ from 

 West Africa, but difl'ers markedly in the form and superiorly outward 

 curve of the discal macular band in the fore-wings, in possessing a 

 large disco-cellular spot in the same wings, and in the broader, shorter 

 tails of the hind-wings ; while on the under side the basal yellowish- 

 white of the fore-wings and discal blackish clouding of the hind-wings 

 are quite wanting in Thersandcr. The very singular elongate hatchet- 

 shaped first spot of the fore-wing band in Constantinus is evidently 

 formed by the extension and coalescence of two widely separate spots 

 which lie between the corresponding nervules in Thersandcr. 



This plainly-coloured but strikingly marked butterfly was first described 

 from East-African examples, and has since been found to occur at several 

 points on that side of the continent ; but Herr Mlischler has now recorded it as 

 inhabiting also the remote Gold Coast. Mrs. Monteiro informed me that the 

 species was not uncommon at Delagoa Bay, and had much the same habits as 

 P. Demolens. Stragglers have been met with in the Eastern Transvaal and 

 upper districts of Katal • and in the latter country Mr. J. M. Hutchinson, 

 who met with five specimens on the Bushman River, a few miles beloAV Est- 

 court, in the year 1881, informs me that the butterfly Avas confined to tracts 

 known as the " Thorns." He notes that its fliglit was comparatively weak, 

 and that it frequently settled on low flowering plants, and was much more 

 easily captured than DemoJeus. 



Localities of Popilio Constantinus. 



I. South Africa. 



E. Natal. — Estcourt (/. M. Hutcliinson). 



H. Delagoa Bay. — Louren^o Marques {Mrs. Monteira). 



K. Transvaal.— Lydenburg District {T. Ayres). 



II. Other African Regions. 



A. South Tropical. 



h. Eastern Coast. — " Bagamoyo." — Oberthiir. Mombasa: " Ribe." 

 — Ward. 



hi. Eastern Interior. — Lotsani River [F. C. Scloux). "Kilima- 

 njaro {F. G. JacJison)." — Butler, 



B. North Tropical. 



a. Western Coast. — Accra: " Aburi (Wci(jJc)." — Mlischler. 



1 I had for long supposed, with Mr. Kirby, that this btitterfly would prove to be the 

 9 of P. Phorcas, Cram. (— Doreus, Fab.) ; but Mr. Distant {Proc. Zool. Soc. Land., 1879, 

 p. 648) states that two J s of Thersandcr had been received by Mr. Horniman from Aburie, 

 near Accra, and that they differed from the ? in having all the macular markings pale- 

 yellow instead of creamy-white. This discovery would leave the ? of the green-banded 

 Phorcas still unknown ; but I find that Herr Moschler {Ahhandl. Scnckcnhcrg. Naturf. 

 GeselUch., 1SS7, p. 51) mentions having received both sexes of Phorcas from Accra and 

 Aburie, and although he quotes Thersandcr, Fab., as the 9 , his note on two (apparently 

 aberrant) examples of that sex, in which the " griine Grundfarlc" is more or less tinged 

 or replaced by ochre-yellow, appears to indicate that the normal colouring of the central 

 band is green in tlie 9 as well as in the J . 



