118 RHOPALOCERA AFRICA AUSTRALIS. 



under-side of abdomen. Legs rather long and stout; the 

 first pair rather conspicuous, very hairy. Abdomen short, 

 about half the length of inner-margins of hind-wings. 



Larva. — Elongate, cylindrical, with distinctly marked 

 segments ; clothed with strong branched spines. 



Pupa. — Moderately stout, angulated ; head rather bluntly 

 bifid ; ornamented with gilded spots and washes. 



This Genus contains two South African species, very 

 readily distinguishable ; — P. Cardui, Linn. Sp., being salmon- 

 red varied with black ; and P. Hippomene, Boisd. Sp., having 

 ^ ground-colour of black, with a yellow-ochre bar on both 

 wings. 



The following remarks of Mr. Doubledav, in the " Genera 

 of Diurnal Lepidoptera," are interesting and worthy of quo- 

 tation. " I have dwelt particularly on the geographical 

 distribution of this Genus, so poor in species,* yet so uni- 

 versally distributed, presenting two distinct sections, species 

 of which are known to co-exist in almost every part of the 

 world, except the Southern parts of Africa and America ; 

 never, except in Australia, presenting more than two species 

 in the same district, and these generally of different sections. 

 Thus, Pyrameis Cardui has for its compatriot in Europe P. 

 Atalanta ; further South, in the Old World, P. Callirhoe ; 

 in Java, P. Dejeanii ; in Australia, P. Itea, and an unde- 

 scribed species, of which I have only seen the fragment in the 

 Collection of the British Museum ; in New Zealand, P. Itea 

 and P.Gonerilla ; in the Sandwich Islands P. Tammeana. At 

 the Cape of Good Hope and Sierra Leone, it ('P. Cardui) 

 appears to be the only species of the Genus." — Gen. Diurn. 

 Lep., p. 204. 



Mr. Doubleday either had not access to, or overlooked, M. 

 Boisduval's "Faune de Madagascar, &c.," ox Pyrameis Hippo- 

 mene, figured therein, must have at once impressed him as 

 furnishing a further illustration of what he remarks on, with 

 reference to the islands of Mauritius and Bourbon ; P. Hippo- 

 mene belonging to the Atalanta section of the Genus, and P. 

 Cardui being a common inhabitant of the islands mentioned. 

 But the discovery of P. Hippomene as inhabiting the South of 

 Africa adds another evidence to the truth of what Mr. Double- 

 day advanced, by removing one of the exceptions he mentions, 

 which I have italicised in the quotation. The species of 

 Pyrameis are closely allied to the Genus Vanessa, Fab. They 

 are powerful fliers, but settle very frequently; so that, by the 



* Ten species are enumerated in the " Genera. " 



