166 RHOPALOCERA AFRICA AUSTRALIS. 



almost straight ; discoidal cell short, closed. Hind-wings 

 large, somewhat truncate, or produced, in some species, more 

 or less, at anal angle : costa strongly arched from base ; apex 

 rather marked ; hind-margin rounded, moderately scalloped, 

 tailed at extremities of first and third median nervules, — 

 occasionally only at extremity of the latter nervule ; anal 

 angle rounded ; inner -margins forming a deep groove to 

 receive abdomen ; discoidal cell very short, usually closed. 

 Legs thick, of moderate length. Abdomen short — slender 

 and compressed in $ , rounded and sub-ovate in ? . 



Larva. — Elongatey thickened in middle like a slug ; head 

 wide, large, and flattened anteriorly, and crovsrned with four 

 spinous processes or horns ; hinder part attenuated, flattened, 

 and rather acutely bifid. 



Pupa. — Rounded, sub-ovate, smooth, with strongly -arched 

 hack ; head very bluntly bifid ; tail with two minute tubercles. 



The above characters of the Larva and Pupa of Nymphalis 

 are obtained from several figures and descriptions. Eight 

 species of the Genus are recorded from South Africa, mostly 

 large and conspicuous insects. Most of the species have 

 white or light-hued stripes and spots on a blackish ground, 

 such as N. Brutus, Cramer, N. Xlphares, Cram., and N. 

 Pelias, Cram. ; but in N. Zoolina, Westwood, the reverse is 

 the case. The undersides of the wings are, in most instances, 

 beautifully streaked and marbled with pearly- and olive-greys, 

 varied with white-edged black spots and streaks, and bor- 

 dered with violet or yellowish lunules. All, as far as is 

 known at present, are inhabitants of woods ; where they de- 

 light to settle on the stems or lofty twigs of timber-trees, 

 frequently darting from their resting-places, and sporting 

 about with a rapidity which might be inferred from their 

 massive thorax, and strong, cleanly cut wings. Again and 

 again, even when roughly scared from their seat, will they 

 return to the same position. They do not appear to relish 

 the honey of flowers, but the moisture that exudes from the 

 bark of trees forms their favourite food. Occasionally, too, 

 they are attracted to earth by some damp substance, and the 

 more strongly-scented such substance be, the more likely are 

 they to settle on it. The males are always the higher, more 

 rapid, and frequent fliers ; and females are consequently the 

 oftener captured, though anything but slow in their move- 

 ments. The metropolis of this typical Genus of the large 

 group of the NymphalidcB is Tropical Western Africa, but 

 nine or ten species are known to inhabit India and the great 

 Asiatic Islands. I have little doubt that, when the forests 

 of Africa South of the tropic have been a little more inves- 



