ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. 401 



A second smaller ^ , almost exactly similar in colouring, was obtained in 

 the same locality by Mr. C. Barker, and was received by me in January 1888, 



Additional localities on "Western Coast of North Tropical Africa: — Came- 

 roons : " Mungo " and Niger ; ' ^ Aho (Buchholz)." — Plotz. 



Precis Sesamus, p. 231. 



Precis Sesamus, Trim., Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1883, p. 347. 



Fig. of (?, Precis Amestris, var. Caffraria, Stand., Exot. Schmett., pi. -58 

 (1885). 



Pupa. — Prominences on head rather short, wide apart, minutely and un- 

 equally bifid at tip. Thorax dorsally elevated into a prominence with a some- 

 what blunted point, but laterally acutely so at base and also before middle of 

 inner margin of wing-cases; a pair of acute tubercles on back of each thoracic 

 segment, besides some minute intermediate ones. Abdomen with three dorsal 

 series of similar tubercles, — the tubercles of the series on each side much larger 

 and longer than those of the middle series ; two lateral series of very much 

 smaller tubercles. 



Abdomen beyond fourth segment and lower median area of thorax reddish- 

 brown ; all dorsal area as far as end of fourth segment brassy-gilded, with 

 numerous small brown spots, and with more burnished brassy-gilded spots on 

 tubercles and their bases; a duller gilded dorsal stripe, narrowing to tip of 

 abdomen ; superior half of wing-cases rather dully gilded, and with a short 

 brown streak (composed of three subquadrate spots) about middle of inner 

 margin ; head dully gilded beneath. Length i inch. 



This description was made from two living pupae sent to me from Estcourt, 

 Natal, by Mr. J. M. Hutchinson in March 1888. They produced pure 

 Sesamus, $ and c? respectively, on 14th and 15th March. I can detect no 

 difference between the empty skins of these specimens and that of an Octavia 

 pupa described on pp. 219 and 230. 



An interesting (apparently $ ) example, rather nearer to Sesainus than any 

 of the three specimens recorded on p. 233, was sent by Mr. C. Barker from 

 Malvern, Natal, with the individual near Octavia mentioned above. This 

 example retains in the fore-wings much of the basal blue irroration, and has 

 barely a trace of red in the striation of the discoidal cell, while the upper part 

 of the median fascia is pure-blue, but its lower part (inwardly bordering the 

 macular red band) is dull reddish-violaceous ; in the hind-wings, however, the 

 red invades the violaceous or lower half of median band, and there is also a 

 red disco-cellular stria. In both wings, hoAvever, the submarginal blue lunules 

 are reduced as in Octavia. The under side is quite like that of Sesamus, 

 except that the discal red is much more developed in the fore-wings, and also 

 faintly indicated in the hind-wings, 



Oberthiir (Ajiti. Mus. Civ. St. Nat. Geneva, xviii. pp. 721-722, 1883) records 

 several examples intermediate between Amestris, (Drury), and Octavia, taken 

 by the late Marquis Antinori in Shoa, Abyssinia, and is of opinion that these 

 two forms can no longer be regarded as separate species. 



Dewitz {Berl. Ent. Zeitschr., xxix. p. 142, pi. 2, 1885) gives (fig. 5) true 

 Sesamus; (figs. 2, 3, and 4) variations indicating more or less approach to 

 Octavia; and (fig. 1) a specimen very much resembling the variation near 

 Octavia depicted in my pi. 4, f. 4. Tliese intermediate examples appear to be 

 in the Berlin Museum; the only locality noted is that of fig. 3, viz., Liberia. 



The evidence in this most interesting case certainly seems to indicate that 

 Octavia, Amestris, and Sesamus are as yet incompletely segregated forms, and 

 that fertile inter-crossing is not unfrequent among them.^ 



^ Precis Actia, Distant (Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., l8So, p. 1S5, pi. xix. f. 7), seems to a 

 large extent to be intermediate between P. Sesamus and P. Archesia. It baa the outline 

 VOL. III. 2 C 



