NYMPHALIDiE. 147 



row being larger and whiter than the rest ; between the latter 

 row and white band is a series of rather large, almost con- 

 tiguous, quadrate marks, darker than ground-colour, and 

 forming a stripe parallel to hind-margin ; from three to seven 

 pure-white dots in discoidal cell, and one or two just beyond 

 extremity of cell. Hind-wing : a broad white stripe, con- 

 tinuous of the inner-marginal, semicircular mark o\\ fore-wing, 

 divided into seven by crossing nervules, occupies central 

 portion from costa to inner-margin, being curved, parallel to 

 hind-margin ; series of dark spots broader than in fore-wing ; 

 three thin, lunular, pale streaks bordering hind-margin as in 

 fore-wing. Fringes of both wings conspicuously marked 

 with white between denticulations. Under-side. — Very 

 similar, ground-colour paler. Fore-wing : costa white close 

 to base ; a short, white, longitudinal streak from base, in 

 discoidal cell, bordering sub-costal nervure ; five or six white 

 dots in cell, and a transverse row of three from costa, a little 

 beyond cell ; white band and marking as on upper-side ; 

 three rows parallel to hind-margin conspicuously white, and 

 forming almost continuous streaks ; the three first spots of 

 the innermost row larger than on upper-side, longitudinally 

 triangulate. Hind-wing : three white bands in basal portion 

 — a broad one edging costa to a little before middle — a nar- 

 row one, parallel to the first, commencing on inner-margin — 

 and a broad one, also parallel and from inner margin, which 

 is broken into three spots towards costa ; central band as on 

 upper-side ; lunulate streaks bordering hind-margin conspic- 

 uously white. Fringes as on upper-side. 



I know nothing of the habits of this strikingly marked 

 species ; but I have no doubt of its being a woodland insect. 

 This Butterfly is not the Melicerta of Drury, though named 

 as such in the British Museum ; and, though Fabricius refers 

 to Drury 's figures (on pi. 19 of his second Volume) in his 

 " Systema Entomologiae," his own description does not by 

 any means accord with them. Drury's species has a broad, 

 longitudinal white band in discoidal cell of fore-wing, from 

 the base — which is entirely wanting in our species (the latter 

 having only some white spots near base, as described by 

 Fabricius) ; and has the transverse white band in the same 

 wing interrupted in five places, instead of in one, as in the 

 Fabrician Melicerta. Fabricius having thus confused the 

 two insects, it is perhaps advisable to adopt Cramer's name of 

 Agatha for his Melicerta. 



Natal — Coll. mihi (Guienzius) ; et Coll. S. A. Mus. 



Port Natal. Sierra Leone. — Coll. Brit. Mus. 



