NOTES ON THE LEPIDOPTERA OF NATAL. oO 
luck; but Iam disposed to believe that had he consulted Colonel 
Bowker—who was in Natal, and who is the father of colonial 
collectors—he would have been told where most, if not all, of his 
“new species’’ had been collected by the “veteran” himself. 
As is the case elsewhere, the occurrence of many species is 
wonderfully local, both in time and place of appearance; and 
unless the collector happens to drop upon the particular spot at 
the particular time, the insects may long remain unknown to him. 
The skippers—Leucochitonea bicolor and L. paradisea—are good 
evidences of this local habitat. I have only heard of them 
occurring at one spot, and there only for a very short period 
of the year. Again, on the coast of Natal, the occurrence of 
Alena Amazoula is very local, and I believe, as is not uncommon, 
the insect is not developed freely in certain seasons. Mr. Spiller, 
in his description of its haunts, is very accurate, and describes 
practically three spots of a similar character to those which are 
known to me, where this curious and eccentric little butterfly 
occurs. Many others are equally liable to be overlooked from 
their close resemblance to insects of the same genus, or on 
account of their mimicking other species; a small insect, which 
Mr. Trimen, in his last series, has named after me, Neptis 
“Goochii,” is a fair example of this, being very similar to 
N. Melicerta and N. Saclava, except that on the wing it appears 
smaller, and feebler in flight; the markings are so similar, till 
compared, that they might easily be rejected for the better-known 
insect. I met with it in several places and on several occasions, 
and feel sure that it is not rare, but has only been overlooked. 
The mimetic tendencies of the Danaide and Acreida, or the 
tendency of other tribes to imitate them, are well known and well 
exemplified in the South African fauna, and this, especially for 
the first year or two of collecting experience in the Colony, causes 
a good many things to be overlooked. Mr.'Trimen’s very interesting 
and scientific Paper on the mimetic tendencies of South-African 
species, in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., vol. xxvi., well explains this. 
I think the mimetic tendencies of Pseudacrea Boisdwalii and 
P. Tarquinia—the former mimicking Acrea Hypatia or Zetes, 
and the latter A. Aganice—has led Mr. Spiller to overlook them 
on the wing. They both occur freely in the neighbourhood of 
Verulam,—Mr. Spiller’s collecting neighbourhood,—but, being 
usually high flyers, have been probably passed over as Acreide, 
