378 SOUTH-AFKICAN BUTTERFLIES. 



very much paler, and with a glossier surface ; spots of hind-wing as 

 on upper side. 



$ Reddish colouring loanting ; fore-wing with a slight tinge of 

 hrownish-ge/loiv {chiefg along ncrvurcs) over inner half ; hind-iuing dull- 

 whitish. Hind-toing : basal and discal spots reduced iu size, — the 

 basal disco-cellular spot and tlie first (and sometimes also the second) 

 spot of the discal series obsolete ; submarginal hastate spots consider- 

 ably enlarged and lengthened, the spots bounding these externally ochre- 

 yellow ; hind-marginal fuscous-grey edging broader, diffused. Under 

 SIDE. — Almost colourless ; only submarginal black spots of hind-wing 

 well marked. 



This species is a very near ally of A. Ranavalona, Boisd./ a native 

 of Madagascar. It differs from the latter, as far as the $ is concerned, 

 iu having the red area much paler and yellower, and iu the fore-wings 

 of very much greater extent ; in both sexes there is no sub-basal black 

 spot just below costal nervure, the submarginal black spots of the 

 hind-wings are much larger, and the adjoining hind-marginal rufous 

 sj^ots of a much duller tint, while the spots of the discal series are 

 considerably smaller, especially in the $, which entirely lacks the 

 large and conspicuous first (costal) spot of the ^ Ranavalona.'^ 



The curious arrangement of the hastate submarginal black spots of 

 the hind-wings, with their externally adherent reddish spots interrupting 

 the actual grey edging of the hind-margin, readily distinguishes Ilache- 

 qucna from all other known South- African Acra'a\ In tint and general 

 aspect the $ is not unlike A. Ncohulc, Doubl., but the absence of mark- 

 ings iu the fore-wings, and black, laterally ochreous-spotted (instead of 

 wholly ochreous) terminal half of the abdomen above, at once mark it 

 as a different species. The spotless fore-wings recur in some examples 

 of the variable A. Cerasa, Hewits., but the latter has no submarginal 

 spots at all in the hind-wings. 



Mrs. Monteiro discovered this Acra:a at Delagoa Bay early in the 

 year 1886, and sent me a rough sketch of it in March, and specimens 

 later on. She met with a good many examples of both sexes, but did 

 not note anything peculiar in the habits of the species. 



1 Faune Ent. de Madag., &c., p. 30, pi. 6, ff. 3, 4, 5 (1833). 



- C. Ward in Part II. of his African Lepidoptera, p. 9, states that he had recently 

 (1874) received pairs taken in copula of i and ? Ranavalona, " in no way differing" (that 

 is, the ? agreeing with Boisduval's Ranavalona S ), and of the 9 Ranavalona, Boisd., " with 

 a i only differing in being rather smaller ; " and he on this account separates the latter 

 under the name of A, Manandaza. [His description here is identical with th'at previously 

 published in the Entom. Monthly Mag., 1872, ix. p. 147.] 



The occurrence of a red-tinted 9 resembling the i is accordant with several similar 

 cases in the same genus ; but I incline to the belief (in the absence, however, of the speci- 

 mens with which Mr. Ward dealt) that some error was made in respect to the alleged pair 

 in which the S only differed in size from the pale 9 . In Ward's figures {op. cit., ]A. vii. ff. 

 I, 2) the larger " 9 " has a good deal of reddish suffusion in the hind-wings, while in the 

 smaller " (J "' this is quite absent. 



