4 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



which seem, although so diverse in colouring, to be only mimetic 

 varieties of the first, aping Papilio Leonidas or Danais Echeria. 

 Of D. Misi2)2ius I have bred several specimens, the larva being a 

 spined one, black throughout, and with two longish and decided 

 horns on the head ; each segment is much constricted. The pupa 

 is short and rounded, and highly decorated with grey striae and 

 blotchings, no doubt as a protection, being very like the bark of 

 stems, &c , to which it is attached. All those I reared were 

 males, so that I cannot tell whether there is a sexual variation in 

 the larvae. They feed on the leaves and flowers of a composite 

 plant. The insect in its larval state, as in the case oi A.Pltalanta, 

 presents great variation from that figured and described as the 

 Indian one by Horsfield and Moore. The handsome and some- 

 what rarer D. Anthedon I reared from some larvse I collected on 

 a true nettle growing by water. Although larger, they are very 

 similar to those of D. Misippus, but had white rings round the 

 body on each segment. The spines were long, horny, and 

 divaricating, but not uvticating ; the horns on the head were also 

 present. Although I made special hunts on the food-plant for the 

 larvae after I had found the first two or three, with the hope of 

 rearing a good series, in order to set at rest if possible the relations 

 between Anthedon, Varia, and Mima, I was unsuccessful in 

 getting more than one poor " beastie," and that was delicate and 

 died. The haunts of the imago always showed me patches of the 

 nettle food-plant growing in the damp, and Mima and Anthedon 

 were present in about equal abundance, so that I hope, by hunting 

 the nettle patches, some Natal resident will manage to work out 

 the problem I had myself wished to do, and probably breed a 

 series of both these insects from one brood of eggs. 



Perhaps the most special feature of Natal Nymphalids is the 

 development of the genus Junonia. J. Anacardii (peculiar to 

 Natal), the " mother-of-pearl butterfly," is the largest and most 

 brilliant ; it is a lovely object floating lazily in mid-air in high 

 sunlight, and well deserves its colonial name. The falcation of 

 the wing is very marked, and varies considerably, as does also 

 the size of the insect and the purity of its colouring, which is 

 occasionally so sufl"used with brownish black as to present the 

 appearance of a new species. It is a wood-haunter, and is not at 

 all uncommon. The capture of two or three of these butterflies 

 is one of the first features of moment in a collector's visit to Natal, 



