P.) THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
Twelve species of the genus Papilio occur. Merope, a straw- 
coloured species banded with black, occurs sparingly, and seems 
to be commoner in Cape Colony than here. It is a “bush” 
butterfly ; all the specimens I have met with have been taken in 
the deep recesses of the forests. The splendid green and black 
P. Policenes is abundant around the bay of Port Natal. It flies 
with great rapidity, but is easily captured when settled on damp 
ground. On New Year’s Day, 1879, I took a very fine series in 
this manner in woods at Umgeni, about four miles from Durban. 
It had rained heavily during the night, and going next morning 
to their haunts I was rewarded by taking several dozens of this 
species, as they drank the moisture from the damp ground. 
Another black and green swallow-tail is P. Nireus, which is 
common everywhere; its abundance, however, is surpassed by P. 
Demoleus, which is as plentiful as Pieris rape at home. A species 
called Pap. Pylades, but which is rather different from the normal 
type, is very plentiful at Durban and Leonidas, is also abundant; 
but my greatest prizes amongst this family have been P. Zenobius 
and P. Cenea, the former a large black and white insect, and the 
latter a fine black butterfly, with yellow-ochreous spots. This 
latter species is most plentiful in April, and delights to sun itself 
on the dark green leaves of the orange tree. The largest swallow-tail, 
P. Ophidocephalus, was first taken in Kaffraria by Mr. Bowker, an 
enthusiastic entomologist of Natal. This species expands about five 
or six inches, and is not unlike an exaggerated gigantic P. Machaon. 
It occurs at the Inanda, about eleven miles from here, and appears 
in the beginning of the year; but I have not been successful yet 
in taking it, for exactly at the time I planned an expedition 
there, the dreadful disaster of Isandhlwana occurred, the effect of 
which was to send all the country residents flocking to the towns 
for protection from threatened Zulu raids) When confidence 
had in some measure been restored, and the residents at the 
Inanda returned to their farms, I rode to the locality, and 
remained there several days seeking it, but, unfortunately, 
without success. However, I was successful in capturing a fine 
new species of the genus Debis, a new Nymphalis, and saw a new 
species of the genus Atella, which in my eagerness I failed to catch, 
The “whites” are not well represented here. Pieris Aga- 
thina, P. Pigea, P. Severina, and P. Gidica are all abundant, but 
P. Mesentina, P. Calypso, and P. Hellica, I take but sparingly. 
