NOTES ON THE RHOPALOCERA OF NATAL. 3 
One of the most interesting genera of South African butterflies 
is the genus Anthocharis. Eighteen species are recorded by 
Trimen, but it is, I think, fairly questionable whether some of 
these are not merely summer and winter forms of the same 
species. Thus A. Evarne and Keiskamma are generally given as 
two distinct species ;* but, after a most careful investigation of 
these so-called species, I am convinced they are simply summer 
and winter forms of the same. In summer they are all Evarne, 
in winter all Keiskamma; the same bushes that produce Evarne 
in summer, harbour Keiskamma in winter. Evarne is darker on 
the upper surface and lighter beneath than Keiskamma. Their 
ground colour is sulphur-yellow, with orange apical blotches. 
Many of the South African Anthocharis have brilliant orange-red 
apical blotches, and are marked in summer with deep black bars. 
Now in winter the same species occur, but they have, in ninety- 
nine cases out of a hundred, lost their black bars, and are plain 
white, with orange-red blotches at the apices of the wings. A 
very handsome purple-tipped species is A. Jone; it is plentiful 
near Durban, and occurs, I am told, far up in the Transvaal. 
Four species of the genus Hronia are found in Natal; two of 
them, EH. Leda and E. Cleodora, are abundant; the others are scarce; 
E. Leda is a large sulphur-coloured butterfly, with orange tips; 
E. Cleodora is yellowish white, with black margins to all the wings. 
These are swift flyers, but E. Leda is not a difficult butterfly to 
catch ; its large size and brilliant colours render it a sure mark 
directly it comes within the sweep of the net. Both species are 
particularly fond of river-courses, especially when these are nearly 
dry, and their sides covered with sloping brushwood. 
The genus Callidryas, as entomologists well know, is essentially 
a tropical one; hence only two species occur in Natal, and these 
are found in the middle of summer. The white C. Florella, whose 
range extends from Kafiraria to Egypt, is the commoner; it is 
fond of settling on flowers at the edge of forest lands. The 
yellow C. Rhadia I have seen but twice, and then the amazing 
rapidity of its flight rendered pursuit hopeless. 
Colias Electra is a very plentiful insect; it is almost identical 
with C. Edusa, and like it, has a white variety of the female. 
At Cape Town, on Nov. 29th, 1878, I found this the commonest 
butterfly; it occurred by hundreds on Table Mountain and the 
* Mr. Kirby, in his catalogue of the Diurni, places both these as one species.—Ep. 
