266 SOUTH-AFRICAX BUTTERFLIES. 



ness and length of the body, the bristly hairiness of the palpi, and the 

 usually more or less bluntly-ending club of the autenn^e. 



A good many species seem to have been incorrectly recorded under 

 this genus, especially various Tropical South-American forms described 

 and figured by the Pelders in the third volume of the Lepidoptera of 

 the Ecise der Novara (1867), pp. 521-523, ph Ixxiv. Besides the 

 five Palasarctic species, there are two from North America and two 

 from Chili, and as many as eleven from the Ethiopian Eegion (two 

 peculiar to Madagascar). Of the African species, nine are found in 

 South Africa, and of these five — viz., Syriiwc, u^^gipan, Ilcninx, Tsita, 

 and Inornatus — appear to be peculiar to the Sub-liegion. One, Mal- 

 gacha, is also a native of Madagascar ; Lepcleticrii ranges far along the 

 western coast of the Southern Tropical belt; Willcmi occupies great 

 part of that belt, and is also recorded from Somaliland, in North-East 

 Africa; while Metis, the most richly-coloured of the genus, is not 

 known to occur beyond the Sub-Region except in Angola. 



In South Africa Metis is the most numerous and widely distributed 

 species, and Malgacha is only second to it. LcjJcIetiei'ii is apparently 

 confined to a few localities in Cape Colony, particularly towards the 

 western side. Tsita and Inornatus are, on the contrary, widely spread 

 on the eastern side of the country, and come but little westward of 

 the Kei Eiver. Willemi and Mcninx are Transvaal natives ; and the 

 exceedingly local Syrinx and ^.gipan have been found only in a few 

 very elevated stations in the eastern districts of Cape Colony, Lasuto- 

 land, and Natal. 



315. (1.) Oyclopides Metis, (Cramer). 



1^ rapilio Metis, Linn., Mus. Lud. XJlr, Reg., p. 325, n. 143 (1764); and 



Syst. Nat., i. 2, p. 792, n. 245 (1767). 

 S „ „ Dru., 111. Nat. Hist., ii. pi. xvi. If. 3, 4 (1773). 



^ „ ,, Cram., Pap. Exot., ii. pi. clxii. f. g (1779). 



(J ,, ,, Wulf., Capens. Ins., p. xxxiii. n. 32 (1786). 



S ^ Hesperla Metis, Latr., Enc. Meth., ix. p. 776, n. 129 (1823). 

 S ? Ci/r.lopides Metis, Trim., Rhop. Afr. Aust., ii. p. 293, n. 182 (1866}. 

 $ Heteropterus Metis, Stand., Exot. Schmett., i. pi. 100 (1888). 



E,rp. al., (S) I in. ^\-2\ lin. ; ($) i in. I-2J lin, 

 ^ Darh p)urplish-broivn, witli orange-yelloio spots. Forc-tving: basal 

 area irrorated witli yellow scales in three longitudinal streaks, viz., on 

 costa, below median nervure, and on inner margin ; two spots on costa 

 about middle, the upper just above and partly beyond the lower (which 

 is in cell) ; beyond middle, a transverse row of five spots, of which 

 the second is beyond the line of the others, the third and fourth only 

 separated by second median nervule, and the fifth (just above sub- 

 median) smallest and sometimes obsolete, innd-iving : basal irrora- 

 tion confined to neighbourhood of median and submedian nervures ; 



