354 SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 



Var. a. (^ and ^.) — Darker ; the Hack sj^ots almost indistinguish- 

 able ; the vitreous spots of fore-wing, on the contrary, very distinet (except, 

 in $, the two lowest of discal row) ; always two disco-cellular, vitreous 

 spots in ^, contluent into one elongate mark in $. Cilia with more 

 distinct pale marks in fore-wing, and of a clearer creamy-white in hind- 

 wing ; beneath in both wings the paler portions are wider and whiter. 



Hob. — Transvaal. 



In marking this rather large and very dark species much resembles 

 the considerably smaller P. Nottoana, Wallengr. ; but, irrespective of 

 size, it differs in its robuster structure, blunter and more rounded 

 wings, tendency to vitreous or subvitreous centres to the dark spots 

 on the fore-wings of the ^, and much smaller development of lower 

 discal vitreous spots in the ^. 



Colonel Bowker discovered this Hesperid in 1862, frequenting thick forest 

 on the Basliee River in Kaffraria Proper ; he reported it as being more numerous 

 in the following year, but restricted to certain localities. In 1872 he sent five 

 specimens from the Perie Bush in the King William's Town district. The 

 occurrence of the variety above described in the Eastern Transvaal renders it 

 most probable that the butterfly inhabits the intermediate tracts of country, 

 but I have seen no specimens from either Natal or Zululand, 



Localities of Fterygos'pidea Kobela. 



I. South Africa. 

 B. Cape Colony. 



h. Eastern Districts. — Perie Bush, King William's Town District 

 {J. H. Bowker). 

 D. Kafl'raria Proper. — Bashee River (/. //. Bowker). 

 K. Transvaal. — Lydenburg District {T. Ayrcs — A^ar.). 



368. (2.) Pterygospidea Djaslselee, Wallengren. 



^ Pterygospidea Djcelteloi, Wallengr., K, Sv. Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1857; 



Lep. Rhop. Caffr., p. 54, n. 5. 

 Nisoniades Umbra, Trim., Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 3rd Ser., i. p. 289 (1862). 

 Nisoniades DjcelceJce, Trim., Rhop. Afr. Aust., ii. p. 311, n. 204 (1866). 



Plate XII. fig. 7 ($).i 



Exp. ah, {■$) I in. 1-3 lin. ; ($) i in. iJ-S-J lin. 



^ Very dark glossy purple-hrotvn, varied with some almost Hack 

 patches, and very sparsely sp)rinklcd with yellowish-wliite scales ; fore- 

 wing with very small discoidal vitreous spots. Fore-wing : a very large 

 indistinctly defined roughly-triangular darker patch rather before 

 middle, — its wide base on inner margin, its apex on costal nervure ; 

 on outer edge of this patch two minute subcostal vitreous spots — the 

 lower one just within discoidal cell — and three other small vitreous 



^ Tliis figure does not sufficiently exhibit the excision of the hind-margins — in fore-wing 

 just above posterior angle, and in hind-wing between second subcostal and third median 

 nervules. On the upper side of the fore-wing, the subapical vitreous streak of three small 

 spots is obscured ; it should be quite distinct. 



